A Disorted Wizard's Dream
by RenegadeWaya
Summary: Harry Potter longs for any escape from his life with the Dursley's that he can find. His attempts to escape his reality for a better one instills in him a love for books and stories. One day as he is looking for his newest escape he finds a group of teens watching something called Fate/Zero and he quickly becomes obsessed with the Fate of a girl named Sakura, with a unique result
1. Prologue

**AN: Brief trigger warning. There are mentions of child abuse (of all kinds) and rape in this chapter. I do not go into any descriptions or details of the events but the mentions/allusions are there. For those that know about the Fate series you know how fucked up parts of it are so that should not be surprising. Neither should it be surprising for those that read HP fanfics as Harry's childhood is almost never pleasant in them. Still I thought it best to put the warning in.**

 **Edited and cleaned up a bit as of 11/4/18**

Harry Potter was not a happy child; in fact, he has never had the chance to be a happy child. His relatives were, to put it bluntly, monsters for the way they had treated him through the last 6 years of his life. The beatings, the starvation, the isolation, the degradation, the lack of any positive emotional support. All of it was simply too much for even an adult to handle let alone a small child. The fact that Harry survived for as long as he did without killing himself, becoming an unfeeling/emotionless monster or gaining some sort of personality disorder was nothing sort of a miracle, although that last one was debatable.

Harry liked to attribute his "success" to his special power for his physical health, and his imagination combined with his love of reading for his mental health. His special power always healed him when he was hurt so he was happy to have it, of course it seemed to be the reason for all his problems but Harry didn't like to dwell on the negatives, he had too many of those as it is. Instead he'd rather dwell on more important things, like which new world he'd travel to today. Of course he couldn't physically travel to other worlds but that was what his imagination and a good book was for. What better way to escape the despair of his world than by pretending to live in another after all?

So today, like every other day he could get away with it, he was in the local library looking for a new story to take his mind off his aching body. Usually, the library was all but empty since most other kids in Surrey had friends and preferred either playing outside or at each other's homes (likely to show off their newest video games). So his curiosity was peaked when he spotted a group of older boys, somewhere around twelve or thirteen years old, clustered around a computer.

Generally speaking, Harry avoided older kids even more than those his age as they were, in his experience, more likely to bully him rather than simply ignore him. However, the awed looks on their faces and the enjoyment they seemed to be getting from what they were looking at made him decide it was worth the risk. Besides, while the librarian might be all but deaf even he would notice someone getting beat up in an empty library…right?

As he got closer to the row of computers he started to hear voices talking in another language, or at least that was what he assumed since it definitely wasn't English and sounded too structured to be gibberish. The group of pre-teens were too engrossed in what they were watching for them to notice his approach, enabling him to sneak behind them and get a glimpse of what they were watching. What he saw was the coolest thing he had ever seen.

Some blond guy was shooting weapons out of a golden portal at a black knight who was grabbing those weapons out of the air to fight off the others. Basically it looked cool, had flashy violence and there was awesome background music, a boy's dream show as it were. Also, even though he couldn't understand what was being said there were at least words on the bottom in English that seemed to be explaining things. He stood there watching, careful to avoid drawing attention to himself lest he be chased away, for minutes as the show, as he was pretty sure it was some kind of cartoon, continued. Eventually, like all shows, it ended much to the disappoint meant of both Harry and the older kids alike.

Harry quickly retreated at that point so as to not get caught but remained within hearing distance of the group in the hope of figuring out more about the show. Luckily, he wasn't disappointed.

"Aww man, I can't believe we have to wait another week until the next episode."

"Yeah it sucks, though I wish it was English dubbed, I hate having to read all the time to understand what's happening."

"You could always learn Japanese."

"No way! That's way too bloody hard, I'll just stick to subtitles. Besides it's not like I watch anime enough for it to actually matter. If this show wasn't so awesome and you hadn't dragged me to watch it with you I probably would have never tried it. It's just too nerdy and I don't want to end up like your brother."

"Haha yeah my brother is such a nerd, he even has dolls of Saber in his room, do you believe that?"

The sound of laughter slowly faded as the group walked towards the library's exit. Harry didn't really care about most of the stuff they had said but he did get some important clues to find out the name of the show. He knew it was Japanese, called an anime, had English subtitles and a new episode was coming out next week. That combined with the names of the characters he learned from the show would (hopefully) be enough for him to find it.

Of course he had never been on a computer before so that might pose a slight problem. Luckily the old librarian was willing enough to help him learn how, though he gave up asking verbally and instead wrote out his request after the 6th exclamation of "What!? Speak up sonny!".

Computers, as it turned out, were fairly simple to use as long as you didn't want to do anything too complicated. Of course what he actually wanted to do was use the internet as it turned out. Harry had heard the word before, even in conjunction with computers, but since he had zero friends and his relatives loathed him he could never find out the meaning. As it was the internet was an amazing place and thanks to something called Google finding the show was actually fairly easy.

The anime, that he now knew was called Fate/Zero, was…not what he had been expecting. It was not a show for children, that much was obvious to him, and seeing Sakura Matou that first time had a profound effect on him. He felt physically ill seeing her in the pit but he couldn't stop watching, he had to know if she had a happy ending, it was **important.** Unfortunately, the anime was only a few episodes in at this point and so he finished them all without his question being answered.

Another unfortunate thing was that he was out of time. If he didn't get back to the Dursley's soon he wouldn't have time to cook dinner and if that happened the consequences would be extremely unpleasant for him. Well, more unpleasant than they usually were at any rate.

Harry ended up getting back to Privet Drive just in time and the rest of the night proceeded as normal, his version of it at least. He cooked dinner, watched his relatives eat said dinner, stole some scraps to eat when no one was looking, cleaned the dishes and got thrown (literally) back into his cupboard. The only difference between this time and others was that he didn't immediately go to sleep. He simply couldn't get his mind off Sakura, he was obsessed.

Maybe it was because their situations were similar in a way. The only difference was the age they had been abandoned at, the details of their hellish lives and that Sakura at least had someone trying to help her unlike him. The reason why he was needed he was so obsessed was that if she could go through that hell and still have a happy ending didn't mean that he could as well? It also likely didn't help that with the way he read/experienced into stories was almost as if he was physically there in person as well. His imagination had been honed to such a degree that he even felt phantom sensations at times. So it was not very surprising that he was obsessing over her fate, it was just bad for his sleep.

* * *

School the next morning was difficult for Harry. Beyond the usual aches from the long term damage and hunger pains he suffered from, he had also gotten a fresh whipping today when he burnt breakfast. It had taken him a long time to go to sleep last night as he constantly thought about Fate/Zero and Sakura and when he woke up the next morning he still couldn't get it out of his head. Combined with the poor sleep the result was him not putting the usual care he took during his cooking and thus the punishment when he made a mistake.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, pain was an old friend to Harry and he barely noticed the newest additions to his back. The only slightly worrying things in his mind was his uncle hadn't made it a show to his aunt and cousin like usual and had him take off more than just his shirt. He had also noticed his uncle touching him with his hands more often lately. In the past he actively avoided touching him with bare skin so the change gave him a bad feeling. Harry hoped his uncle wasn't searching for the areas with the least amount of scars for his future punishments. He had few of those as it is.

Harry forcibly dragged himself out of those thoughts, after all he only had a few more minutes until class ended and then he could go back to the library. He was grateful that his relatives seemed to almost encourage him to stay away from their house as much as possible on school days. If they didn't he wouldn't even have the small escape from his hell that he currently had.

Hearing the bell ring signaling the end of the school day Harry booked it out of the classroom, both due to his eagerness and for practical reasons (he didn't want to spend a few hours being chased by his cousin and friends).

The library was as empty as it usually was (a good thing in his mind) when he got there so he able to choose any of the computers he wanted. He of course knew there wasn't a new episode out yet but he needed to know what happened to Sakura, how everything ended, it was **important**. Luckily, the internet is a useful place and he found information that could help him with his desires.

When he found out Fate/Zero was adapted from a novel that made Harry's day. Books and reading were his favorite things in the world, the only things that brought him a measure of happiness, and the fact that his current obsession came in book form was priceless to him. The problem was, the entire story was only available in Japanese so he couldn't read it.

There were a few things he could do at this point. One, he could simply wait for the anime to continue at the pace of an episode a week with no knowledge of how many episodes might be made. Or two, he could try to learn Japanese so he could read the novel, something that would likely take months of hard work at least. Neither option made him happy but there wasn't anything he could do about it, those were his options.

In the end he simply decided to do both. He'd try to learn Japanese in between watching episodes of the anime, that way he'd be able to reach the ending in the fastest time possible regardless of which option it was. With his resolve set and plan made he set out to learn Japanese. Thankfully not only did the library surprisingly have some books on the language to help but the internet had many resources he could use as well.

"Well, there's no time like the present. Better get started."

* * *

It was now Christmas Eve, almost two months since his first exposure to Fate/Zero, and Harry's life has gotten worse. His uncle had found a new form of punishment for whenever they were alone and it was the worst one yet. Harry now felt he as if he knew a little of what it must be like for Sakura when she was in the worm pit. Those punishments were the only times Harry ever cried now. The whippings and beatings, the insults and starvation were all known to him already. They had been a constant in his life for years so they no longer bothered him. But this… this went beyond mere pain.

Now more than ever he wished he could control his special power but nothing he did worked. He had tried willing the power to work, remembering what it felt like the few times he caused something strange before. He had tried meditating in an attempt to feel his power. He had even tried working himself into a panic attack in an attempt to at least make _something_ happen. But none of it worked. He had seen no evidence he even had "freakishness" anymore beyond his healing since he somehow got on the school roof about a month before he obtained his newest obsession.

Running away or telling someone about the change in his life wasn't an option either. He had tried both before a few years ago, multiple times in fact, and the results were…unpleasant. Anyone he told, even if he showed proof of his abuse, just gained a glazed look and promptly forgot about it. Any further attempts to get them to help after that just caused those adults to ignore his very existence.

The couple of times he tried to run away had been weird and ended badly as well. The first time, as soon as he got out of Surrey he had lost control over his own body, which promptly walked back to his relatives' home despite his mind screaming for it to stop. The second time, he didn't even manage to get that far before a couple of policemen who, like the adults he talked to before, had a glazed look in their eyes picked him up and dropped off back at Privet Drive. The punishments following those two attempts still featured prominently in his nightmares to this day.

As a result of these failures his desire to just escape from his existence and the world as a whole increased exponentially. Now that his new punishment had entered the picture it was no longer a simple desire, it was an obsession to escape in any way he could. As a direct result of this he threw himself into his Japanese studies, taking to even forgo sleep and practice at school in order to learn quicker.

He had made a decent amount of progress in the written language and in at least understanding basic spoken sentences by this point in them. He had no idea on how to judge his ability to speak the language though since he had neither a teacher nor someone to practice talking with. All in all, he was almost happy with his progress. Almost because it was nowhere near fast enough for his tastes and because he no longer knew what being happy felt like. Maybe that would change in a month or two when he felt he would be able to read the novel. He prayed that it would in fact, though he knew his prayers had never been answered before.

Despite it all however today was a good day for Harry and he was happy for the brief reprieve he had gotten. He had no additional punishments of any kind with his uncle and had been allowed to leave the house for most of the day. The best news however, was that there was a new episode being released today and Harry was almost giddy with excitement.

The show may have had much more…. darker elements than he had been expecting but the show was still amazing and his obsession never wavered. Before Fate/Zero he had preferred stories that were only happy (some would say childish) in tone. Why would he want to escape to a world that wasn't happy, his life was already unhappy enough after all. Now however, he found he preferred stories like this. It was easier for him to image himself in a world that was more realistic after all (the existence of magic had no bearing on the realness in his mind).

His good mood didn't last long though. The episode that came out was the last of the season, there would be no more weekly episode to satiate his obsession. There was also little indication that Kariya would be able to save Sakura in the end. If anything it was looking like quite the opposite in fact. The only good news about the whole thing was the show wasn't cancelled and was likely to come back next year at some point. Harry wasn't sure _when_ next year though so it was likely he'd be able to read the novel by the time it came back. That wasn't so bad at least but it wasn't really the best news to have that day. Still. today was probably the best Christmas Eve he'd ever had.

Harry spent the rest of his time in the library studying after that, trying to make as much progress as he could with Japanese before he had to go back to the Dursleys. He hadn't bothered returning for lunch, he neither had to make it nor would he had received any if he did. So he ended up staying at the library until it got dark out and it was time for him to make dinner.

Thankfully the rest of the night once he returned was uneventful, though the looks his uncle had occasionally given him had him shivering in fear as he tried to lull himself to sleep that night. Unfortunately sleep never came, just before he fell asleep, he was woken by the heavy thuds of his uncle coming down his stairs. The noise bringing him ever increasing dread as they descended down step by step. When his uncle opened the cupboard door with that familiar look in his eyes Harry broke down crying, silently of course as he knew the punishment only got worse if he made noise.

* * *

It was…sometime in February. Harry wasn't sure of the exact date really. He had trouble thinking lately, it had been a long time since he had last eaten. A couple of weeks maybe? His aunt had found out about his new punishments and was very unhappy…with him, and had made sure he spent as much time in his cupboard with as little food (read none) as possible as a result. The punishments hadn't stopped of course, but they seemed to be his fault now for some reason? Well the punishments were always his fault, but the type of punishment being his fault was new. Harry was more confused than normal but he knew he'd probably get food soon; the starving cycles never went passed two-two ½ weeks for some reason.

His escape from the library was probably not really a good idea in any sense of the word though. He was supposed to be in his cupboard right now as he no longer got free time after school. The only reason why he wasn't there in fact was because he was beyond desperate for a reprieve. He'd gotten lucky when his uncle didn't fully luck his cupboard when he got home today and before he could even think he had bolted out the door. His obsession with a certain novel and his being on the very last volume of it likely had something to do with his great escape. So here he was, a few hours later, and way past the time he should have tried to sneak back, still in the library finishing the last few chapters of Fate/Zero.

Harry snarled in unmatched fury when he finished reading it. He had held out hope that there would be a happy ending until the very last page, way past the point where he knew there would be no such thing. But he couldn't give up hope, he had been desperate for a good ending for Sakura. For someone, anyone, to save her from the almost literal pit of hell she was living in. He could see it in his mind, the days and months following the end of the novel as Sakura was thrown again and again into the basement full of worms. He could feel her hope dying every day, he could feel the pain as the worms tore through her body, he could feel the loathing, the disgust, the sense of violation as the worms did unspeakable things to her. And he couldn't accept it. He wouldn't accept it!

Unknown to Harry his magic was struggling to respond to his emotions, his desire, his obsession, his wish. Currently however, his magic was under so many bindings and restraints that if he was scanned for magic he would be categorized as a squib. Those bindings however, were now starting to crack. There was so much built up pressure that the bindings would have had broken in a few months naturally if it wasn't alleviated anyways. That, combined with the sheer depths of Harry's desire along with the potency of his raw emotions, meant that those bindings were now about to shatter.

Meanwhile Harry was delving deeper and deeper into his imagined world, experiencing more and more of Sakura's life after the Fourth Holy Grail War. The details were becoming ever clearer, the phantom sensations more real as Harry desperately tried to force his will on the that world and change it. To change her. To save her. Harry Potter could not let this happen, he could not let her suffer as he had suffered, as he still suffers. He could not, would not, let her live a life devoid of hope and love. Harry was so invested with the character that was Sakura Matou, so obsessed with her, that he was forgetting what was real and what was fiction in his desperation to protect her from her fate. And it was because of this that the bindings on his magic finally snapped.

In a magical explosion that ended up leveling the library that had stood as his sanctuary for years, Harry's enacted the strongest burst of accidental magic ever recorded. At that moment, Harry Potter vanished from the library of Little Whinging, England leaving nothing but magical residue and rubble in his place.

* * *

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore's heart stopped for a brief moment when he felt a veritable tsunami of magic wash over the wards of Hogwarts. No one else currently inside the castle noticed anything off however, behind his sudden paling of the skin. He was the only one tied into the wards, which did their jobs of blocking out the disturbance perfectly. If it wasn't for the fact that the magical wave actually somehow charged the wards instead of damaging them he would have thought Hogwarts was under attack.

The knowledge that the castle wasn't under attack was what finally managed to get his heart pumping once again. He even managed to relax himself at that moment, though he was immensely curious about what could have caused such an event. That lasted only a few seconds however until he remembered something he wasn't supposed to. He remembered were Harry Potter lived.

At that realization Albus Dumbledore, former Supreme Mugwump, ex-Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, current Headmaster of Hogwarts and DADA professor at the same institution all but ran to his office much to the confusion, and concern, of his students and staff.

When Dumbledore rushed into his office he was met with the sight of the various instruments designed to monitor young Harry's health in pieces, scorch marks on the shelf and walls where they had once been placed. Dumbledore could now also remember exactly what the actions/reactions the devices made meant, the data they were reporting, and that knowledge made him go so pale that he looked like one of the many ghosts in his castle.

"FAWKES!" Dumbledore roared at his familiar, who was so stunned by the level of desperation and anger in his companion that he failed to respond to the implied command to attend him. It took Dumbledore physically grabbing his familiar for the phoenix be shaken out of its shock. The verbal order for him to take him to Number 4 Privet Drive was then all but screamed in the phoenix's ear, and the bird wasted no time in complying.

Dumbledore appeared in a flash of flame in front of the quant suburban home a split second later, not caring about any breaches in the statute of secrecy at the moment. A bystander might even think that he was actually **trying** to break the statute as the old wizard quickly cast a **Bombarda** at the front door of the Dursley's home. Albus Dumbledore might be a kind grandfatherly figure to msot, he might be seen as the "Leader of the Light" and he might preach forgiveness until the sun turned cold, but everyone has some line that, when crossed, causes that person to snap. For Dumbledore that was the knowledge that these...animals! had abused, both physically and sexually, the child he considered to be not only the hope of magical Britain but his own grandchild as well.

With that said it was little surprise that when he saw the human whale that was Vernon Dursley charge out of the hole that used to be his front door he wasted no time in slamming a **Legilimency** probe into the man's mind. He barely had enough time to stun the monster before he threw up his dinner at the images he had taken from his mind. Even as he was dry heaving however he maintained presence of mind enough to stun the rest of the Dursley family. By the time he had finished however he had still not located Harry, and had no clue as to his whereabouts. At this point he started to fear the worst.

When the aurors started showing up not a minute after he cast his first spell they arrived to the sight of Albus Dumbledore staring blankly at Harry's "room" under the stairs, looking every year of his 100+ years of age. He answered their rapid fire questions in a daze, not really paying attention to what anyone, including himself, was saying. The only exception was when he heard about the local library being blown up in a magical explosion from one of the aurors.

Throughout the whole process he continued to stare at the blood soaked mattress and the desperate cries for help literally _carved_ into walls. He was about 95% sure that he had failed, that Harry Potter was dead and that it was his fault. He was 100% certain that he had lived a miserable life before said death and that it _was_ his fault. He had one last method to check if young Harry was still alive however. Fawkes couldn't find him, his monitors had _exploded_ , and all his locator spells were failing. All that was left now was the Hogwart's Big Book of Students.

Dumbledore was still in a daze as he walked slowly towards Hogwarts' inner sanctum, dreading what he might find within the Book's pages. He had absent-mindedly told the aurors about the Dursleys and what they had done to Harry before he had arrived. It was going to be a big hit on his credibility when the rest of magical Britain found out what happened but he had least managed to convince the aurors that Harry Potter was still alive. He had to come up with a very quick lie to explain everything and it was likely only his presences there _before_ the aurors arrived that had let them believe his tale. Though his refusal to allow them to _see_ Harry Potter likely poked some holes in that very same lie.

He was so caught up in his thoughts and fears that he hadn't even noticed he had been joined by his closest friends and confidants, McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout and Snape. He continued to be oblivious to their presences even after he broke down crying in relief. The book showed him Harry's name as clear as the day it was first written within, with no time of death or greyed out lettering marring the black ink. The last thought Dumbledore had before he passed out from mental exhaustion was where exactly Harry had disappeared to.

* * *

Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, also known as the Wizard Marshal, the Kaleidoscope or just simply "Zelretch!" by his "adoring fans", was curious. A few months ago he had felt someone or something use an equivalent of his magic with the target being his own reality. When he didn't feel anything actually show up in his reality though he had brushed it off as one of the semi-common attempts to emulate his magic from another dimension. Since all but an infinitesimally small number of those attempts succeeded he had simply shrugged and soon forgotten all about it.

Now however, he could feel the same magical signature from all those month's getting closer. It wasn't another attempt by the same entity though, if it was he wouldn't be nearly as interested in it. No, he was interested because it was almost as if someone had thrown, or rather shot, themselves into the inter-dimensional dead space after vaguely aiming at one of "his" realities. That was interesting for a few reasons.

The most important being that multi-verse travel was _NOT_ supposed to work like that. If you were capable of traveling between dimensions it was supposed to be instantaneous as they operate sort of out of phases from one another. Having the journey take any amount of time was a sign that the dimensional coordinates were used or interpreted incorrectly in some way, which should result in failure or death. For the caster to take months of travel and still not be at the destination meant that the crazy bastard had tried to dimension walk without any coordinates at all, and that, to Zelretch, was interesting enough for him to want to meet said crazy individual.

Reaching out with his magic the Wizard Marshal grabbed, for lack of a better word, the ball of mana cocooning the… young boy? The hell? Before pulling him to his room in the Clock Tower. An interesting side note about the Kaleidoscope is that when the mana of two users of the magic (or magic similar in affect) mixed the users gain knowledge of each other's home dimension if one was skilled enough. For Zelretch this was only interesting because the boy come from a reality from outside his area of influence, meaning a version of him didn't exist there at any point in time. The boy also never existed in the realities he was connected to either, which made his travel here even more interesting.

When Zelretch was hurt during his fight with Crimson Moon it had damaged his ability to use his True Magic. What that damage essentially did was prevent his ability to connect/travel to a "large" portion of the multiverse. This portion mainly consisted of realities he didn't exist in some form or another and worlds where Zelretch was too different from the "original" to truly be understood. Since that still left an infinite amount of realities he had cared more for his declined physical state instead of his magic. Still, the boy intrigued him and it was possible that he could restore his full abilities with his unwitting help.

When the boy showed up on the floor in front of him he had smiled. When the first words out of his semi-delirious mouth was "must save Sakura" he was confused, until he realized what he meant. Then he grinned.

"You used magic you don't actually understand in a way that would have seen you dead or insane if you didn't have such a ridiculously huge magical core all in desperate attempt to save a girl that, too you, was completely fictional from having a bad life? You, my boy, are just as insane as I am and you know what? Since you're so interesting and might be able to help me with a little problem of mine I'm going to help you with yours."

If Harry was lucid enough to both look at and understand the truly sadistic grin on the old wizard's face he likely would have reacted in much the same way as he would to his uncle in one of his rages. Unfortunately, he wasn't and as a result he gave a small smile and nod in thanks.

Something that few people know, and even fewer lived to continue knowing, was that Zelretch was actually a fairly cruel man, he was both a magus and a vampire after all. He wasn't actually evil per say, he just derived a certain amount of enjoyment from the suffering of others, especially if they are interesting people. What that meant for Harry is that he would definitely "help" Harry protect Sakura but would make him suffer for his enjoyment first. Yes, he would eventually help him in some form or another, but what form that help was in and how much help it was would really solely on the boy's entertainment value.

So, as soon as Harry fell unconscious, Zelretch got to work on his "plan". Of course all the plan involved was getting the kid some magic circuits (ripped off a rather convenient alternate version of Harry that now existed in a reality he was connected to) and then dumping him in in front of the Matous. He did give a little help to make sure that old fucker Zouken didn't kill him immediately but that was it.

Sure the plan was not very elaborate but Zelretch was lazy and didn't really care, though it was interesting to see how quickly his alternate's circuits bonded to him. He had never really experimented with doing such a thing before… He was also rather curious how the boy's circuits and core would interact with each other but he would find out sooner or later and now wasn't the time. Now was the time to throw this chick to the wolves, or worms in this case.

* * *

Zouken Matou was… confused to put it mildly. In one of his rare forays outside of his estate he had a young boy literally appear out of nowhere in front of him. His first impulse was to just let his worms eat the child, he obviously didn't look like anyone would miss him judging by the clothes. That however was tempered by the fact that he radiated prana like heat from a furnace and his appearance in front of him was distinctly magical in nature. So instead of letting his worms feast he instead analyzed the boy to find out why exactly he felt like a magical reactor.

What he found out caused him to unleash maniacal laughter that could be heard for blocks. Said laughter also caused all the sleeping children who heard it nightmares for weeks to come. Zouken had a reason to laugh though. Not only did the boy have a _magical core_ of all things but he had _fifty_ extremely high quality magical circuits… that were currently not activated. And he literally appeared right in front of him, like a gift from heaven. Combined with the obvious signs of abuse, and thus the fact that he wouldn't be missed, meant Zouken just found out who would be paired with his granddaughter in continuing the Matou line.

Thankfully his little excursion was done in the dead of night and so he wasn't accosted as he half dragged half carried the boy back to his home. While he could easily hypnotize any who would wonder why a strange old man was dragging an unconscious child back to his home it would be annoying and he didn't want to have to if he could help it. By the time he got back, and into, his home and near the basement he was tired of carrying the boy. So decided to wake up him, it was more fun to send some who is conscious to the worms for the first time after all.

He didn't have a mystery that would wake the child up, that would have been both foolish and wasteful, but he also didn't want to use something as mundane as a slap or cold water either. Luckily he soon had a rather evil epiphany and found out a good way to kill two birds with one stone. The pain of awakening one's circuits could be quite intense after all and would surely give a good jolt to the child's system. With a malicious look in his eyes Zouken put his hand on the boy's back.

Harry Potter jerked awake with a soundless scream on his lips, the pain he was in was something indescribable and he couldn't concentrate enough to scream properly even if he wanted to. Thankfully the pain didn't last all that long, though once it faded to a dull ache he had a new problem. Mainly his confusion as he tried to figure out where he was and why the creepy old man speaking Japanese looked so familiar. The fact that he was trying to mentally translate while he tried to make sense of things didn't help his confusion either. It wasn't until he was forced to stand up and start walking that he understood what the man wanted.

As they walked Harry tried to figure out what exactly happened to him. The evil smirk on the old man next to him along with the ever increasing feeling of déjà vu he was experiencing did little to help his concentration. It wasn't until they seemingly reached their destination and he walked through the door the old man held open did he finally figure out why everything felt so familiar. This was the Matou manor and he was currently standing in its basement, looking down into a pit of disgusting worm creatures. Harry froze and Zouken's smirk grew even bigger.

"What's wrong boy? Do you not like my pets?"

Harry couldn't answer, he was too stunned to even breathe properly let alone form a sentence.

"Well that's ok, you'll get to know them real soon. Look you'll even have a playmate."

Those words shocked Harry's cognitive processes into working again like they had been hit by a bolt of lightning.

"Hey Sakura, you'll never guess what I found on my evening walk. Never let it be said that your grandfather doesn't take care of you."

Sakura. That name. That girl. He had wanted to protect her. He had wanted to save her. Where is she?! I can't see her?! I have to find her! I have to find her!

"I found you a friend and guess what? He'll be joining you here from now on, be sure to play nice now."

Zouken was all set to shove the young boy into the pit, no child, or adult, would willing go into the pit after all. He never got the chance however as at the same moment he was set to throw the child into the deep end, was the same moment Harry caught sight of Sakura. Without even thinking he jumped into the pit in an attempt to reach her. Zouken was stunned enough that he just stood there, simply watching what the boy was doing instead of just leaving the basement right away as he had intended.

Harry, for his part, was in utter agony as the worms swarmed him, their attraction to his utterly insane amount of prana nearly all consuming. There was only a "small" grouping around Sakura that ignored his presence. Luckily Harry was both used to high amounts of pain and had managed to land near his goal, his obsession, otherwise he likely wouldn't have been able to make it without curling up into a pain filled ball. But make it he did, even as the worms burrowed into his body any and all ways they could. The only safe place was his face, and that was because Zouken was actively controlling them so that they didn't disfigure him.

When he finally made it to the girl he had obsessed over for the past months he didn't think about how she wasn't supposed to be real. He didn't think about how he got here nor did he think about how much pain he was in. Instead he focused his will on moving his body to envelop the young girl (though she was not much younger than he was) and force out a single sentence before he succumbed to the pain.

"I'll never leave you alone."

Harry wasn't sure why he used those words instead of something else like "I'll save you" or "I'll protect you" but those were the words that came out and those were the words that Sakura Matou would carve into her heart forever. After that Harry could no longer ignore the pain of countless worms burrowing into his body and his mind shut down. Time knew no meaning for him as never ending pain poured into his body. But never once did Harry let go of Sakura. This made Sakura have the first real smile on her face since before her first session in the pit. It was a small fragile thing that only looked all the more so as she cried. It was the first time she had done so since her parent's abandoned her.

Zouken for his part merely looked on in interest. His newest acquisition's actions had surprised him but he wasn't upset by them. If anything it was the opposite. Thanks to the boy it would be that much easier to break the girl and twist her into his own corrupt grail. He could hardly wait to see the despair in their eyes as they watch each other go through hell.

 **AN: And that's the end of the prologue. This story was inspired by Fate's Gamble and A Broken Wizard and a Broken Magus, both of which I highly enjoyed reading. I'm going to try and make my story unique in terms of both HP fanfics and HP fate/stay night crossovers so this story will be heavily AU (Harry Potter world will be like nothing you've seen). The pairing will be Harry x harem mainly because that's what I like to write most of the time so if you don't like that you don't have to read it. That's all I really have to say besides thanks for reading.**

 **Cheers,**

 **Ren Waya**


	2. Chapter 1

**AN: I had thought about giving Harry the power to pull things from books/stories he has read when I was thinking about this story. The reason why I did things the way I did instead was mostly because I couldn't really think about how to fit said power into my plot as comfortably as I wanted. It would make for an interesting story separate from this one though (with different books involved maybe) but not something I plan on writing. If someone wanted to write a story like that I think it could be cool and if they want some ideas for such a story let me know. Anyways enough rambling on with the story.**

 **Fixed up and smoothened out as of 11/4/18**

Time in the basement had no meaning to Harry. He didn't eat, he didn't sleep and there was no way of knowing when the sun was up. The only reason Harry knew that time was passing at all was the few times that Sakura had been allowed to leave the pit. Her had returned to the usual blank mask she showed shortly after she had given him that small smile when he had first reached her. The only indication that she was even aware of his presence was her refusal to let him go whenever she was with him. Usually it was something simple like holding his hand but on rare occasions when, one of them could fight through the pain, they held one another in their arms. The worms got… agitated when they perceived that they were being blocked off from their meal however so the pain was worse than usual when they did so. Still, neither of them regretted those times. They did make sure they didn't show outwardly that they drew immense levels of comfort from the act otherwise who knew what Zouken would do.

Speaking of, Zouken showed up periodically to either stare at him in dark amusement or throw the occasional insult. It was nothing new to Harry so he paid the old monster's words little heed. The only exception was when he mentioned useful bits of information. One such piece of information was that he was apparently special even amongst magic users as he possessed something called a magical core. For another he had both a high quantity and quality of magical circuits as well, almost as if he was from a long line of Magi, though his apparent lack of crest seemed to preclude that. Harry was almost positive his magic was the reason why he was in a world that was supposed to be fictional when he learned he possessed it. If so how had he done it? He needed to figure it out because if he could it would be possible to escape from here with Sakura in tow.

It was something to think about even if he had just ended up making wild theories and explanations. Thinking about it helped keep his mind off the pain he was going through so the futility of his efforts didn't matter.

According to Zouekn, he was supposed to stay in the pit for a total of three months before he would be let out and start his magical, and mundane, studies. As for how far away he was from the end of that time period Harry didn't know but he hoped it would be soon. Life at the Dursley's might have been hell for him but his current situation was like a condensed version of all his… experiences there happing at once. If it wasn't for the worms apparently providing him with some level of nutrition and his magic healing his injuries, which was something that Zouken had taken great interest in when he saw it, he didn't even think he would be alive still. At least the hunger pains were a welcome contrast to the worms tunneling into and out of his body.

Harry turned his head slightly at the sound of the basement door opening, his face tightening in anger at the sight of Sakura walking next to her grandfather. That meant it was time for her next session in the pit and Harry need to steel himself so he could work through the pain and make it to her side when she was forced in. Zouken made sure to put her in a different location every time, likely because he took sick pleasure from watching him wade through the worm pit to reach her side. The old monster was twisted like that. Which was why it was such a surprise when, instead of chucking Sakura into the far side of the pit, he actually called off the worms currently feasting on his magic.

The shock caused by the absence of the constant pain was too much for Harry's mind to process causing it to briefly go blank as he laid on the basement floor. Zouken sneered at his display of weakness before commanding Sakura to fetch him, something she didn't hesitate to do. As Zouken watched his pathetic granddaughter help the pitiful boy who was the source of his latest curiosity he took in the changes the boy had gone through. His Crest Worms, in addition to both expanding natural circuits and acting as artificial ones, caused physiological changes in those implanted in them as well.

If the target was pathetic, as in weak, earned his contempt [and thus added cruelty] or had no magical potential then they would look like their life force was being consumed by the worms (because it was). This showed in a variety of potential ways such as a loss of pigmentation in the skin, loss of color in the hair and eyes and the atrophying of limbs. For someone who is actually worthy of his worms and are meant to survive the implantation process the change was more cosmetic and led to changing of the color of the hosts hair and eyes to a purple color. Zouken was unsure of the reasons why that was the case as there was nothing inherent in the implantation process that would cause such and effect. The negative changes were caused on purpose most of the time so he knew it wasn't that. In the end however he simply brushed it off as an unintended yet meaningless side effect and left it at that.

For his newest acquisition the change was even more unique and he hypothesized it might have been a result of the boy's strange existence. Not only was the child in possession of a magical core but when he had analyzed him he had read more like a magical existence such as a phantasmal beast than a human. He didn't full read as one though, it was more like a mix of the two. If Zouken was more interested in research like a regular magus he would have dissected the boy as soon as he found him.

All that aside the boy's, presumably, cosmetic changes were different from anything he'd seen before. The implantation was a success, Zouken knew that much, but instead of a uniform purple hair coloring he instead retained his black hair as the primary color with a rich purple color as a sort of bottom layer of it. Thankfully the rather unsightly way the boy's hair had stuck up like a bird's nest had changed and was not much straighter than before. It had also grown longer, though not as long as it should have after three months. The boy's eyes were the most striking change however. One eye was the boy's natural color of green, only the intensity of the color had increased reminding him of the purest Emerald in its sheen, while the other had changed to a striking purple color reminding him of the highest quality Amethyst in its vibrancy.

Zouken was pulled from his musings by the sound of the boy talking to his granddaughter, or at least attempting to speak anyways. The boy obviously barely knew how to speak Japanese, though he could apparently understand it to a decent enough degree. From the boy's clearly European ancestry Zouken figured he might be a native English speaker or at least be able to speak the language better than Japanese at any rate. Which was why it was curious when his granddaughter seemed to actually be able to understand what he was saying. He didn't think she was pretending to do so, he doubted she'd be able to fake it well enough for him to not see through such an act.

That was not the only curious thing she had done either. While he was glad that the boy had become a sort of pillar of support or beacon of hope for his granddaughter, if only because it would make it easier to completely break her because of it, he didn't understand why he had done so. About the only thing about Sakura that he was impressed by was her force of will. Despite everything she had and is going through she hadn't completely broken yet, mostly because she didn't cling on to false hopes like this boy represented.

Even when his useless son had promised to rescue her during the Grail War she hadn't believed him. So, when the fool died and was thrown into the pit as food, she didn't even blink. So why was it that she obviously drew comfort from a strange boy that she couldn't even understand, even one who had jumped literally into hell of his on volition to reach her? He'd have to figure it out later, for now it was time for the boy's introduction into Magecraft. After all, if he was to be useful he'd have to possess at least some ability with the craft.

* * *

It took far longer for Harry to be able to walk on his own (and at a decent pace) for Zouken's taste as it took nearly ten minutes for the group to travel from the basement to the room he had prepared for his lesson. He was irritated by the boy's weakness even though he knew, intellectually at least, that it was to be expected. What was surprising to him was that the child didn't seem to be feeling any discomfort from his still active circuits, they had been active for three months straight after all. Zouken had figured (correctly) that the boy's magical core and semi-magical existence would insulate him from the consequences of active circuits to some extent, but to seemingly not be affected at all was surprising.

While the child had been in no danger of running out of Od thanks to his magical core being almost akin to a magical factory in terms of prana generation and wouldn't have died from overheating thanks to his Crest Worms there should have still been some damage. He didn't consider the boy's weakness as damage as that had more to do with barely moving for three months while not being fed and being subjected to the implantation process. Another thing he would look into when he next analyzed the boy.

Harry, for his part, was actually a little giddy to learn magic. His life may still be a living hell and he wanted to get away from Zouken as soon as he possibly could but still, he was going to be learning magic! Despite the universe apparently trying to stamp out any hint of joy or childishness from his life he had still stubbornly clung on to a small measure of such. It also helped that once he started learning how to do magic he would be much more likely to find some way to escape from this place.

The thought of escaping had Harry unconsciously tightening his grip on Sakura's hand, an act that caused the young girl to look at him worryingly. Well to someone looking just at her face they wouldn't be able to tell anything, but Harry could feel the worry and slight curiosity in the look. Harry, in response, gave her a smile before telling her not to worry, which she seemed to accept before turning to once more to face her grandfather. Harry was glad he had been learning Japanese otherwise talking to Sakura would have been impossible. Although maybe calling it talking wasn't correct as she hadn't spoken a single word to him yet.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts as they reached their destination, a rather comfortable looking sitting room complete with couches, an armchair, a fireplace and a coffee table. Seeing the sheer… normality of the room in a house that has something as horrifying as the worm pit was unnerving but Harry did his best not to let his discomfort show. Judging by the cruel smirk on Zouken's face he didn't succeed.

Zouken proceeded to sit down on the only armchair in the room while Harry and Sakura, hands still firmly intertwined, took the couch facing him. Harry would have preferred standing up, partly because he was just not used to being allowed to sit and partly because he wanted to loosen up his body, Sakura had taken the initiative to sit down and he wanted to be next to her. Once they were all seated an uncomfortable tension filled the air as Harry did his level best to both set Zouken on fire with his pure hate while still looking like he was being respectful.

If Harry was less intelligent he might have already tried running away, taking Sakura with him, or assaulting Zouken in an attempt to be free from the evil man. He, however, knew that the man was capable of magic so even if he wasn't a scrawny child beating him up wouldn't work. He also would have run if not for two other things. The first was that he just didn't believe running away would actually work anymore, not the times it had failed to work when he lived with his relatives (who were not capable of magic). The second was little more than his intuition about the worms residing in Sakura's, and now his, body. He wasn't sure exactly what they were capable of except for the things he had seen/read in Fate/Zero but he doubted that was the full extent of their abilities. Especially since all of his knowledge came from a (at the time) fictional source that never delved too deep on the topic.

Which was why he settled on trying to burn a hole in the old man with his eyes while keeping the rest of his face passive. Though, once again, he seemed to have failed at hiding his feelings if Zouken's condescending smirk once again making an appearance was anything to go on. Oh well, at least he wasn't being beaten for that like what would have happened at the Dursleys. To his surprise when the silence was broken it was by Zouken addressing him, in English.

"Now boy, seeing as how you look European and don't possess the capacity to speak Japanese in any intelligible form I'm going to assume you'll at least be better with English. That being said tell me your name so I can stop calling you boy, unless you want me to give you a name?"

Judging by the cruel glint in the man's eyes Harry definitely did not want him to give him a name so he answered.

"My name is Harry. Harry Potter."

"Good so you do speak English, if you hadn't I would have been annoyed. It's going to take more time than I would like to get you speaking Japanese at a level above a drunken baboon as it is. I would have been quite… upset if we didn't have a common language to base are lessons off of."

Harry frowned slightly. "I know Japanese, I learned it myself. I am perfectly capable of understanding both the written and spoken forms."

Zouken arched an eyebrow before responding. "We'll have to test that claim but understanding the language and speaking it at a level we could understand you are two separate things boy. And you most certainly can't do the latter."

"If I can't speak properly then why does Sakura seem to understand me?"

Harry's tone was a bit more defiant than he would usually be comfortable with but Zouken, thankfully, seemed to be merely amused by him than anything else.

"Yes I noticed that and was rather curious myself. Let's find out shall we? Sakura, how is it that you're able to understand Harry when he speaks to you? I know you're neither smart enough nor skilled enough to decipher what passes as the boy's poor attempts at speaking Japanese. So what is it?"

The last part was addressed to Sakura and was spoken in Japanese. Harry was able to understand the gist of what Zouken was saying, something that Zouken saw so at least it showed he hadn't been completely lying or exaggerating. Then, when Sakura answered her grandfather, Harry heard her voice for the very first time.

"You're right that I don't understand his words grandfather but when he speaks to me I am able to understand his meaning anyways."

"Hooh? Is that so? In what way? Explain in more detail girl I have no wish to keep asking needless questions."

"It's like he sends me a series of emotions and other feelings, along with a rare image that, when taken together translate into something I can understand as a message."

The explanation was difficult for Harry to follow, both because of his, apparently inadequate, Japanese skills and because he simply didn't understand what she was talking about. Zouken, however, had no such troubles and was highly intrigued by the explanation. He contemplated the issue for a moment before his eyes flickered to their entwined hands.

"Sakura. Release Harry's hand."

The word's caused both the children to stiffen and unconsciously tighten their grips on each other. Zouken merely frowned minutely before Sakura, upon seeing the look on his face, reluctantly let go of Harry's hand. Harry for his part want to defy the man but was too adept at reading people when they were upset to not miss the displeasure in Zouken's face. Since he had no desire to get Sakura into trouble, and thus risk punishment, he forced his hand to relax and let go of her hand.

"Now Harry I want you try speaking to Sakura once more." He spoke in English as Sakura hadn't learned it yet and he didn't want to potentially influence his little experiment.

Harry… wasn't sure what to say to be honest. He didn't want to have a conversation with her in front of Zouken, if she would even respond to him in the first place that is. He didn't think she wasn't talking him because she didn't like him or didn't want to speak. Instead he felt like it was that she didn't know _how_ to talk to him. Zouken started getting mildly irritated as Harry was taking too long to speak, which finally spurred him into action.

"Sakura can you understand me?"

Sakura just tilted her head quizzically as she stared at Harry impassively.

"I'm assuming that you can't interpret what he's saying now?"

Sakura just shook her head at her grandfather's words, which were spoken in Japanese this time.

"Hmmm. Interesting. Boy come here."

Harry really did not want to obey Zouken's command. Not only did he not like the man in general but even his presence was sickening to be near. It wasn't something caused by his physical senses, though they were not happy to be near him either, but rather something… more. It was like just being in the same room as the man stained his soul. Unfortunately, Harry had little choice in the matter. If he didn't obey it was likely that he'd be forced to obey anyways and not listening to commands usually had… bad results. So he steeled himself and walked over to stand in front of the old monster. Sakura watched the whole thing with a barely visible frown on her face and concern evident in her eyes, for those that knew where to look that is.

Harry stopped just within arm's reach of Zouken and, before he could react, had his right armed grabbed by him. The feeling of wrongness increased considerably at the contact and before he could even think about his actions tried to jerk his arm away and shouted at the monster in human flesh.

"Let go of me!"

His words, unfortunately, went unheeded and his attempts to wrest his arm away were futile, though Zouken seemed faintly amused by his attempts. Zouken, for his part, had figured out just what Harry had been doing to Sakura to be understood. He still didn't know how it worked exactly beyond a vague guess but the results were intriguing. Harry was somehow projecting his emotions and intent when he spoke to the person he was touching. He was doing this unconsciously and it was caused, somehow, by the boy's magical energy, which he channeled into who he was touching while speaking. It did not really conform to what Zouken knew of Magecraft as even enacting the weakest of mysteries required clear intent and an understanding of what was being done. Both things the boy obviously lacked.

Zouken ignored the boy as he slowly stopped struggling, finally realizing the futility of attempting to free himself from Zouken's grip. Was it related to the fact that he was a semi-magical being perhaps? Or his possession of a magical core? Magical cores had always been beyond rare throughout history and there had been no research, at least none that survived that Zouken knew of, on them so it was possible. Maybe it was a combination of the two. Phantasmal beasts, even though most were slightly more intelligent than normal animals (some even on the level of humans), utilized their prana in a purely instinctual manner.

Whatever the case maybe was not something he'd likely be able to figure out anytime soon even if he was inclined to study it. The only thing relevant to his interests was the necessity of constructing a few more bounded fields to help control any other similar occurrences that were potentially more… violent. After all it would be annoying if the boy lucked into a way to either hurt him or free himself or his granddaughter after all. His thoughts finished Zouken finally released the boy's arm but gestured for him to stay in place when he made an attempt to go back to the sofa.

"Well I figured out what you were doing more or less. In any case you're going to have to learn to speak proper Japanese if you want to actually have a conversation with Sakura-chan."

Harry's insides burned and adopted a scowl at the addition of the affectionate suffix Zouken had added to Sakura's name. It felt disgusting for him to play at holding affection for the girl whose life he ruined. Zouken just smirked at the boy's rather predictable response. He had rarely added any kind of suffix when speaking to or about his granddaughter before and had only done so now to make the boy uncomfortable. Sakura, for her part, had only stiffened slightly when she heard that. Zouken had been speaking in English but she easily recognized her name and the suffix added to it. Even that slight reaction was more than he usually got so Zouken chalked up a win at the sight of it.

Zouken might not understand the boy's obsession with his granddaughter. In fact, it confused him greatly as the boy had willingly jumped into his worm pit at the mere sight of her and then proceeded to comfort her as best he could when he shouldn't even know her. Sakura's however response was much more understandable, though the speed of it was slightly surprising. Still he wasn't going to complain, it's not like it will make a difference in the end, though now he would have to find some other use for that waste of space grandson of his.

"Now that the side attraction is done with it's time for your first Magecraft lesson. First I'm going to check your Element and Origin, after which I'll explain what both those terms mean and then start explaining Thaumaturgy from there."

Saying this Zouken stood up from his chair and walked behind a now very tense Harry. Harry, for his part, was feeling incredibly uncomfortable as the current situation reminded him of what his uncle did to him. He didn't move though, despite how much he wanted to. It had less to do with bravery than it had to do with habit at this point. Moving just made things worse.

"Now, try not to scream. I'm old and loud noises are irritating for me."

Without further words or warning Zouken sunk his arm into Harry's back. He didn't physically shove his arm into the boy's spine, though that might have been an amusing, albeit wasteful, thing to do. Instead he sort of merged his arm into Harry's soul as a means of gaining information about his Element and Origin directly. He knew of other ways to determine both those things, such as a few Formalcraft rituals or a modified version of certain analyzing spells. He didn't use those methods though as the rituals were too time consuming for his tastes and using those spells deeply enough for that purpose was dangerous to him. So instead he had developed his more… direct approach about a century and a half ago. It was agonizing for the target but completely risk free for him in addition to being fast so he was quite proud of it.

Zouken pulled his arm out less than a minute later, an action that caused Harry to collapse on the floor. Sakura, who had been worrying about Harry since her grandfather stood up, made a small sound of distress before rushing over to the nearly unconscious child. Zouken let her do as she pleased as he waited a minute for the boy to catch his breath before speaking again.

"The results were as interesting as the rest of you Harry. Your Element as far as I can tell is everything. The five elements of both eastern and western philosophy along with many others I couldn't fully identify are present within you. As for your Origin is Dreams. Your affinity for seemingly everything means you won't face obstacles no matter what route you wish to go with your magecraft. As for your Origin I only have a vague idea what effect it will cause.

Harry had composed himself enough at this point to both understand Zouken's words (as much as it was possible for him to) and to stand up (with the help of Sakura at any rate). This time when Harry made a move to sit down on the sofa Zouken made no move to prevent it, something that almost had him feeling grateful… almost. Harry and Sakura were once more holding each other's hand as they made their way back to the couch. When they finally seated themselves Zouken resumed speaking, having paused once Harry had started moving.

"To give you a brief explanation one's Element is what determines what kind of mysteries you are able to invoke. Someone with a fire Element would be able to create a fireball by using their prana for instance but unless they had a water Element wouldn't be able to create a ball of water. There are five standard Elements as none to magi, that being Fire, Earth, Wind, Water and Aether. Of course there are non-standard Elements like yours as well but those are rarer than having an affinity to all the elements. There are mysteries that don't require an affinity and are able to be used by any magus but more on that later.

As for one's Origin, it is the starting point that defines one's existence and directs one's actions throughout their entire life. It often manifests as a kind of instinct and is what determines a large part of who we are both as a people. For Magecraft one's Origin plays a big role in specialization of mysteries. It doesn't determine what you can or cannot do but it does give you a boost in fields that relate to it."

Zouken paused for a moment to let his words sink in before continuing.

"Now as for what Magecraft or Thaumaturgy is, it is the ability to use one's magical energy to make changes in the natural/external world. These changes, like creating fire where there was previously none or changing the shape of the ground beneath you, are ones that could be made by entirely mundane means. You could spray oil into the air and use a match to create a fireball just like you could with Magecraft. There are a few mysteries, basically a sliver of power from the Root, which is the wellspring of all existence, that causes truly supernatural phenomena that can't be replicated through mundane means but that's not something you should worry about.

As for magical energy, simply put it is the energy used to invoke a mystery and is often called prana. Prana can be one of two things, or even a combination of both. Mana, the life force of the planet that is located throughout the atmosphere, and Od, the natural energy inside of living beings. To enact a mystery one must channel Od through their magical circuits, conduits of magical energy located in a person's soul, or somehow utilize the Mana in the area around them. The ability to directly manipulate mana has long been lost to humans however, it can still be utilized through rituals and runes to a certain extent but that's it. You may be an exception to this for certain reasons that I'll explain at a later time.

Now a Magus, the term for someone who practices Magecraft, has a set number of magic circuits with a predetermined quality from birth. Both the number and quality of a Magus' circuits determine both how much Od they have and how much they can utilize at any given point of time. Though it is possible that someone with fewer and lower quality circuits to have more Od than their betters It's not common.

On average a Magus has twenty circuits of medium to high quality. An elite magus from a long lineage would average between thirty-forty circuits of high to extremely high quality. You my boy have fifty of the highest quality circuits I have ever seen in a human in addition to your possessing magical core. A magical core basically being a large container for magical energy that, like circuits, resides in your soul. By large I mean that where as a circuit would be a small machine producing Od a core would be an entire factory. Magical cores are beyond rare and there has only been one documented case of a human possessing one, so what benefits beyond a large increase in reserves you'll get will be up to you to find out yourself.

Now as for how your Origin and Element will affect your ability to do Magecraft I will let you know my opinion. Your Element, or rather Elements, being all of the known ones, and possible unknown ones, means, as I said earlier, that you won't face any challenges or obstacles no matter what magecraft you use. There's also the possibility that there will be some synergy between some of them allowing you to do unique things. Now your Origin is a bit trickier to figure out but my best guess would be that it would lend more towards the creation of things or mental interference. Mysteries like the creation of Homunculi, Alchemy (which Homunculi are part of), Gradation Air and the construction of Bounded Fields. Mental inference magecraft consists of things like hypnosis.

I have books on basic Magecraft and Magecraft theory available that you will study in-between your sessions in the pit and learning Japanese properly. I will teach you the basic mysteries personally, those being Reinforcement, utilizing prana to strengthen an object's existence, Structural Analysis, utilizing prana to look into an object's existence, Alteration, giving an object a property/effect it didn't originally have, and Gradation Air, the materialization/creation of an object through the use of prana) Anything past that point is up to you to figure out for yourself like a true Magus.

The last thing I'm going to tell you is that to be a Magus is to walk with death. If you fail to actualize a mystery correctly, you could die. If you overuse your circuits or run out of Od you could die. If you meet another Magus and are useful to them in some way you could die or suffer a fate worse than death. If you don't properly harden your resolve you will not survive in the Moonlit World for long boy."

As Zouken's words faded the room became incredibly quite as Harry struggled to understand the massive information dump he had just received. For a boy who had barely turned eight years old (his birthday had been in the worm pit at some point) all the information about Magecraft was almost too much to take in. It was certainly more than he could fully comprehend at this point but Harry made the best effort he could.

Throughout the whole explanation Sakura sat quietly by Harry's side, simply enjoying the small comfort his presence provided her. As her grandfather had spoken entirely in English Sakura hadn't understood a word about what was being said, though she could make a fairly educated guess. Adding together both her grandfather's actions (shoving his arm into Harry's back) and the conversation she had gotten after her first time in the worm pit it was a good bet that conversation was about Magecraft. Sakura absolutely hated Magecraft. It was the reason why she had been abandoned and the reason why she was being subjected to hell on earth. As such she had absolutely zero desire to ever practice Magecraft, something which Zouken both knew about and, rather strangely, didn't care about. Which was why Zouken actually almost showed surprise on his face when she spoke up.

"Grandfather, I desire for you to teach me Magecraft as well."

Harry was briefly surprised that Sakura had spoken, though he was more surprised about the fact she spoke rather than the words that were spoken (after he mentally translated the Japanese to English). He wondered, rather absent-mindedly, why she didn't already know Magecraft but he was too wrapped up in his thoughts to pay that much mind. The only reaction to her words he had was a brief feeling of happiness that she would be joining him and a small tightening of his grip on her hand.

Zouken didn't replay for a couple of minutes as he pondered his granddaughter's request. The reason why he hadn't cared whether she learned Magecraft or not was because he was originally merely intending her to carry on the Matou line before being sacrificed as the Holy Grail so he could become immortal. She didn't need to know mysteries to become the Grail or give birth. Also the Matou brand of Magecraft only required exposure to his worms to be taught so it was rather pointless to teach hear standard Thaumaturgy. That being said her being able to utilize "normal" Magecraft would have little impact on her fate. So, he made a decision.

"Very well, I will teach you Magecraft alongside Harry. That being said I already know your Element and Origin. Your Elements are Imaginary Numbers/Hollow, which you were born with, and Water, which you gained from the Crest Worms. As for your Origin it is the same as your natural Element, which is quite rare. I will get you a book on basic Water Magecraft theory but I can't help make any recommendations for other branches of study. The only advise I have for your self-study would be that your Hollow Element relates to Spiritual Beings. Now, when you are not being taught Magecraft or spending time in the pit you will be learning English and helping Harry speak Japanese. I do not have high expectations of you but if you fail to even meet those the consequences… will not be enjoyable."

Sakura tightened her grip on Harry's hand to painful levels before simply nodding in reply. Harry didn't understand what happened as the conversation was too difficult for his limited Japanese skills to follow but he could feel the effect on Sakura's emotions. She was afraid, something he hadn't felt even in the worm pits. So he spoke comforting words to her in an attempt to soothe that fear. It worked but the rather amused glint in Zouken's eyes when he saw him do that sent a shiver of dread down Harry's spine.

* * *

It had been half a year since Harry Potter had gone missing and the details of his home life was released to the public. The resulting outcry and condemnations went just as Dumbledore had expected. The people of Wizarding Britain were furious to such a degree that it was comparable to a nesting mother dragon in a blood rage after someone had smashed her eggs. If Dumbledore hadn't already lost his positions as Chief Mugwump and his status as Britain's representative to the International Confederation of Wizards, he would have lost it within the hour of the story breaking. As it was he had lost the vast majority of the credibility he had managed to retain after the war, only keeping his position as Headmaster of Hogwarts because it wasn't possible to fire him. He had effectively neutered the Board of Governors and their ability to do so years ago so they couldn't do anything while the castle itself still approved of his appointment.

The public backlash against him for his part in Harry's upbringing was so bad however that he would have been put on trial for a long list of charges starting with criminal negligence and ending with accessory to child abuse, and he would have been found guilty. It was only the fact that Harry was still alive, and that he could prove it, along with the reasons (and the proof for said reasons) he had provided to explain why he hadn't noticed the abuse that he hadn't faced a siege. As it was, it was a near thing and he had needed to call in some of his small supply of available favors to insure that didn't happen. The public still hated him, and wouldn't piss on him even if he were on fire, but that would hopefully change as time went on and he proved himself once more.

The Dursley family on the other hand had no such favors to call upon, not that it would have done them any good even if they did. For once the Light, Dark and Neutral families were all united in seeing them punished for what they did to their nation's hero, though for the Dark families it was more outrage about how a wizard was treated by a filthy Muggle. Their trial, and subsequent sentencing, was probably the fastest ever in Wizarding history.

The boy, Dudley, while a bully, hadn't been put on trial and had instead been shipped off to a muggle orphanage with his memory wiped, no one really cared about his fate after that. Harry's maternal aunt had been found guilty of child abuse, both physical and emotional, and had been sentenced to life in a Muggle maximum security prison for life. She had also been secretly enchanted with passive compulsion spells to encourage the distaste and hate towards her from the people around her. Harry's uncle's list of charges however was too long and horrible to read and had been found guilty instantly. He was sentenced to a (wizard's) life time in Azkaban, his life to be insured by magical means so as to carry out the full sentence. They would have sent him through the Veil or had him Kissed, his crimes warranted that much, but no one wanted him to die without suffering first.

Dumbledores' closest friends/confidants and been both more and less understanding than the average wizard about what had happened. They knew that it truly wasn't his fault that he hadn't checked in on Harry or noticed the warnings from his monitors. After all they experienced the same sort of shock of remembering his existence when the wards fell as he did. Only Minerva had truly known about **where** Harry had been placed however, though she had been too busy worrying about him at the time of his collapse to realize she remembered. As a result, she was taking the revelations the hardest, as well as blaming him the most, and he couldn't fault her reasoning for doing so. She had warned him after all, he just hadn't listened. He simply couldn't understand how one's family could not treat their own blood with anything but kindness.

The others on the other hand had only noticed the change when they had entered his office and remembered what his monitors were linked to. They were also, as whole less directly attached to Harry than Minerva, although Snape had been ever harder to get a read on than usual when the news broke. There was one exception however, and that was one Remus J. Lupin. Tracking down the troubled werewolf and former Marauder had been difficult as he had taken to living almost exclusively in the Muggle world. The conversation that followed _after_ he finally found him was probably one of the hardest things Dumbledore had ever experienced, much like the man's fist after he finished telling him about what happened. Dumbledore still had the bruises from that experience as Poppy had refused to heal him, though he didn't think he deserved to be healed anyways. Remus left after that, determined to find his lost cub even if he had to die in the process. Dumbledore still couldn't find him even now, though he wasn't sure if he wanted to.

Still, time eventually heals all wounds, and while the anger and pain was still present in abundance it had become more of something hiding below the surface rather than the general state of being for most people. Dumbledore held little hope that things would get much better than that until Harry was finally found but it was still better than the beginning.

Now however, he could no longer put off the meeting he had been dreading since he first found out what had happened to Harry. His destination was only a quick Floo trip away and the total travel time would not be long at all. Despite that, to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore it was the longest trip he had ever taken in his long life. For he had to visit Harry Potter's parents.

Opening the door where he knew he would find the Potters was a struggle akin to Atlas trying to hold up the world in his mind. But he had to do this, it was his duty and, as much as he didn't want to perform it, he would not shirk from it. Taking a deep calming breath Dumbledore steeled his will and entered the room where he would apologize to two of his closest friends. As Dumbledore look at the Potters he couldn't help but remember the day he took Harry and had sworn to them that he would make sure he grew up safe. He had failed that promise and now it was time to confess his sins.

"Hello, Lilly, James. It's been a long time since we last spoke. Unfortunately, I have bad news. The worst news in fact and the only thing I can say is that I'm sorry that I failed you and that I would give anything to change what had happened. You see I had decided that no place would be safer for your son than with your sister's family Lily. As it turned out I was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. You see it all started when— "

Dumbledore continued to pour his heart out to the parents of the young child he had failed as he proceeded to tell them just how badly he had screwed up. Throughout it all the pair remained silent, not that Dumbledore had expected anything else. After all they haven't been able to speak in over seven years. It was hard to speak when you couldn't wake up after all, and despite the best the Healers in Saint Mungo's could do Lily and James slept on, oblivious to the world, on their sterile white beds.


	3. Chapter 2

**AN: Trigger warning in this chapter. Mentions of rape and suicide in this chapter. There are no detailed descriptions but I felt it best to put this warning here anyways.**

 **Updated, edited and cleaned up as of 11/4/18**

It's been roughly two years since Harry had somehow traveled to a fictional world and wound up the charge of one Zouken Matou. To be honest Harry had mixed feelings about the whole ordeal, very… intense mixed feelings. In some ways his life as a Matou was both better and worse than when he lived with the Dursleys. On one hand he was fed regularly and with decent food (enabling him to shake off the previous years of malnutrition), he had friends (well he had Sakura and a few acquaintances), he didn't have to hold back in his academic studies for fear of punishment and he was learning magic, or rather Magecraft. On the other hand, he had to spend every other day in a pit of worms, had to watch the person he cared for the most in the world suffer through the same fate just as regularly as he experienced it. Oh, and he had to deal with one Zouken Matou, aka the Supreme Worm Lord Bastard.

Harry wouldn't have changed what happened to him, even if he could, however if it meant abandoning Sakura to suffer at the hands of her grandfather alone. Fictional character or not Harry had been only slightly less obsessed with the Sakura before he came to this world and would have made the jump willingly rather than accidently if he had to. He wished that he had actually rescued her though rather than simply ended up sharing her fate but that was still a work in progress. His escape plan was still very much a barebones thing but it wouldn't have even been that if not for the ideas he had gotten from some randomly appearing magical tomes.

Speaking of magic Harry had found that his grandfather's guesses/predictions about his aptitudes had been spot on for the most part. Not only had he been right but Harry even enjoyed the areas of studies his talents lent him to. Not that he neglected exploring other (read any and all that he could) types of Magecraft, particularly water based mysteries since that was something he could work with Sakura on, he just enjoyed creating things more than flinging out elemental attacks.

On the Alchemy front he had made decent advances in most areas but it wasn't currently his main focus. Alchemy was incredibly difficult to reach a level of competence past that of a basic initiate without focusing on it for a long period of time. Harry was intelligent and loved to learn things but some of the concepts necessary for alchemy were just too complicated for him to grasp without much more extensive studies. That would likely change sometime in the near future thanks to his increasing mastery of Thought Acceleration and Memory Partition granting him more time with which to learn things.

Harry was glad to have had received them through one of the mysterious book materializations, otherwise he would likely never have had access to the cornerstone skills of Atlas Academy even if he had asked Zouken. He had managed to create his first partition about two months ago and he felt like he was close to his second, which would speed him his learning curve exponentially.

While he was intrigued by possible applications of Transmutation and Flash Air (which was the Alchemical process of substituting one thing for another) once he was more proficient in their uses, he was more intrigued by the creation of Homunculi. To an emotionally deprived child that had close to zero positive human interactions in his life before becoming a Matou (which mostly centered around Sakura anyways) the appeal of creating someone who was not only undyingly loyal to their creator but strong enough to defend them as well was, in a word, immense. Harry dreamed, even if he never said so out loud, of having a true family to both love and be loved by, and he saw himself creating Homunculi to fill some of those roles.

As for his ability to create Bounded Fields, the results were… less than good. It wasn't the actual creation of the fields that was the problem, he was actually quite good at it. His problem lay in his ability to understand Runes. Learning the Runic language was not the hardest thing Harry had ever, or was currently, doing but it was still learning in a new language in the end. He had only finally finished learning Japanese a year ago so it had been put on the back burner till recently. That, combined with his interests in other areas, made his progress slow but it was something that would resolve itself as time went on as long as he kept at it.

It was with Gradation Air that Harry had the most progress with, done the most research on, and had the most fun with. It was a simple mystery, one so simple that even the worst of Magi could do it with ease since all it was, was utilizing prana to give one's imagination form. The conventional way of using Gradation Air was in conjunction with Structural Analysis. The Magus would use Structural Analysis on an object and then utilize the information/blueprint it gave them to recreate it through Gradation Air. The Projection was a vastly inferior product compared to the original, hence its lack of use by any Magus that held pride in their ability, but the prana cost was extremely low as a result as well.

Those few, and oft ridiculed, Magi that did do research on Gradation Air all focused around the reason why the copies were so inferior and how to improve them. They rarely went anywhere though, none possessing the patience to constantly Structurally Analyze and Project objects nor the mental fortitude to withstand the ridicule of their peers. What Harry looked into however, was why Projection all but relied on Structural Analysis to function in the first place.

Theoretically all that was required to utilize Gradation Air was a clear image of what you wanted created with your prana. When Harry, and several Magi in the past, had tried to do so without a blueprint the mystery had failed to last more than a few seconds before fading. Harry wanted to know why and, eventually, figured the true limits of the myster. He was helped out by his Origin and affinity all elements he was sure, as his first few successes should not have succeeded. Harry's occasional instinctive utilization of mysteries was something that still confused both him and Zouken. Though unlike him the old monster hadn't cared enough to look into it at all.

Thaumaturgy was supposed to require a Magus to both clearly understand exactly what they were trying to do and to force themselves to believe what they were trying to do was possible. If they didn't the consequences could range anywhere from the mystery simple not working to horrible mutilation of the Magus or even death. Harry sometimes required neither and the few times he had failed to actualize a mystery the consequences were nowhere near what they should have been. Not that he was complaining. He still utilized an aria though rather than rely on his unique ability. Better safe than missing any/all your limbs after all.

Back to his research into Gradation Air, the reason why it by and large failed when not used in conjunction with Structural Analysis was because most people didn't go into enough detail without the blueprint it provided. Take for instance a plain steel rod. If you tried to Project one purely through your own imagination you would likely do something like picture the desired rod in their mind. The physical dimensions (how wide, long, ect.), the color and the material it would be (in this case steel). What most don't do however is include things like the texture, weight and the atomic composition of the material (I.e. what steel was exactly). With only basic concepts like physical appearance the Projection was not strong enough to resist Gaia's influence for more than a few seconds. Adding more details, such as weight and texture, increases the lifetime exponentially of what you create. Adding the exact elemental composition and atomic makeup of the projection lets a Free Projection (Harry's term for Projecting without an aid.) match, or sometimes even exceed, a regular projections life expectancy.

The reason why objects Projected based of Structural Analysis worked so much better was because S.A. gave all that detailed information to the Magus, even if most simply "save" the blueprint in their mind without thinking too deeply about the details. If you had sufficient imagination however, the problem was moot and you could Project whatever your mind could come up with. There were drawbacks of course, the most prominent being the sheer concentration and length of time needed to imagine something in enough detail to Project it properly.

It was still extremely fulfilling to accomplish the feat. Zouken had rather predictably, and condescendingly, stated that the likelihood of him being the only one to figure it out was miniscule at best and the only reason why it wasn't widely known was because no Magus had been stupid enough to reveal it publicly. Harry hadn't let the old man's words bother him too much though, and he had promptly forgotten them when Sakura (after he told her about it) had given him one of her rare true happy smiles at my success. Those smiles of hers were so rare that each and every one took its place amongst the happiest memories of his life.

The rest of his studies had yielded nothing of particular note sadly enough. He had essentially mastered reinforcement, alteration (though he had come up with potential research ideas for it) and elemental mysteries. The only other thing of note was his extremely secret studies into True Magic, mainly the Kaleidoscope, all the books for which had been obtained through more of mystery book drops. While Zouken had mentioned True Magic before he had neither explained what it was nor what True Magic actually existed. Neither had he provided any books on the subject. Harry figured that he likely had a reason for doing so and that it wouldn't be a smart idea to give any indication that he was looking into the subject. Of course the old monster could just be forgetful, after all he had neglected to tell Harry that Magi weren't supposed to have their circuits on at all times, though that could easily be explained as a combination of curiosity and cruelty. He couldn't have known that it wouldn't be harmful to Harry after all.

All the books on True Magic sadly only consisted of the bare bones descriptions and a few vague theories on the possible ways the known ones operated, but they were still fascinating none the less. The Kaleidoscope in particular as it gave him an idea of how he had ended up in this world, and how he might be able to leave it. Of course he had little to no luck in actually figuring out the magic's mechanics from such lackluster texts. He had also received no further book drops on the subject after the first one. In fact, the book drop that had netted him the tomes on True Magic was the last one he had received in the past five months. It was like the person providing him with his supplemental studies was purposefully messing with him, and it was working.

Things were getting worse by the day at the Matou manor and Harry was growing desperate to find a way to escape. There were no changes to either his or Sakura's life per say beyond the introduction of one Shinji Matou to it that is. But that was enough. The older boy was highly unpleasant to be around and gave Harry bad vibes whenever he looked at Sakura. At least he had no magical ability at all, which made it easy to chase off the few times he had tried to bully Sakura. Other than that though nothing had really changed, they went to school, practiced Magecraft and every other day spent the night in the worm pit, and there in lay the other problem.

He could tell Sakura was slowly breaking from her trips to the pit, despite his best attempts to comfort her. Or maybe it was because of him comforting her that she was breaking. From what he had gathered Sakura had had no hope nor happiness in her life before he had showed up. She had possessed no hobbies, no friends and nothing to do beyond go to school, come back to the manor and endure the worm pit when it was time. In a way that was better for her as she had nothing good enough in life to compare to her rather horrifying experiences in the pit. If all you knew in life was terrible then, comparatively speaking, it wasn't as awful to experience. Harry should know, he was the same in many ways.

Now though Sakura had a refuge from her hellish existence, one that could help her forget her suffering if only for a moment. She had him. Harry had brought light to Sakura's dark little world, and while it was a source of comfort it made the dark aspects of her life stand out all the more sharply. Zouken had obviously realized this and, judging by the fact that he had never tried to stop him from providing Sakura comfort, had likely hoped for such a scenario. If Harry hadn't already vowed to erase the old monster's existence from the world as soon as he could the first time he had seen him, that alone would have sealed Zouken's fate in his mind.

It was all well and good to realize the situation and to wish to change it, but it mattered little if he actually couldn't do anything about. If he tried to stop providing Sakura with the love and comfort she so desperately desired she would break all the quicker because of it. Shielding her from the worms wasn't possible either. Zouken would never agree to stopping Sakura's "training" in the Matou brand of Magecraft no matter what Harry promised him. Trying to stop the worms from getting to her only made the whole experience worse for both of them too (even though he naturally drew the majority of the worms to him thanks to his ridiculous level of Od). That left either escaping from Zouken or killing him, neither of which he could accomplish at the moment.

Harry had figured out the disturbing truth of the Crest Worms as he had been playing around with Structural Grasp with his own body one day. The worms implanted in him had pieces of Zouken's very soul inside them, small though they might be. That meant that he could control them remotely from any location on Earth. That also meant that **all** the worms had pieces of his soul inside of them, a revelation that had him throwing up when he remembered that Sakura had them insider her as well. Escape was impossible as result unless he went somewhere Zouken couldn't reach them through his familiars, hence the studies into the Kaleidoscope.

Killing him was equally problematic for the same reason as escaping was. Zouken had an obscene number of worms in the basement alone and Harry didn't think those were the only ones he had. If they all had pieces of the old monster (or should he be called old worm now?) inside of them like he was sure they did? Let's just say Harry had his doubts that he had lived for the centuries he claimed through natural means.

All this left Harry feeling increasingly desperate and his growing concern for Sakura had left him so fiercely protective of her that he had scared off nearly anyone that would interact with him. He had even sent three older kids to the hospital when they had tried to bully Sakura and he found out. People had become afraid of him then and had quickly distanced themselves as much they could from both him and Sakura from that point on. The lone exception being a strange kid called Shirou Emiya who was a year ahead of them, and he wasn't really a friend as much as a friendly stranger that they ran into once in a while. Sakura didn't seem to mind this state of affairs, if anything she was happy with both his protectiveness and their social isolation. Harry didn't mind all the much either as he hadn't had more than passing acquaintances at school and spent all his free time with Sakura anyways. He might want to have friends but that desire paled to his obsession with her.

Harry would find a way to save her even if he had to burn the world to the ground in the process. He would squeeze out every drop of his ability and potential to find a workable solution and if he couldn't find one, he'd make his own instead.

* * *

Zouken had noticed the change in the boy over the last two months. The amount of time and effort he had put into his Magecraft studies had increased to a ridiculous level. He was sure the boy didn't even sleep anymore and wondered how he was able to function that way. The old monster knew the reason why the boy had become so frantic of course. Harry had seen the same thing in his granddaughter that he had, and was desperate for a way to "save" her. His efforts amused him. There was nothing that he could do after all, so all his efforts did was highlight just how desperate he truly was. Zouken reveled in his despair.

His plan to use the boy to break his granddaughter had worked even better than he had hoped for. The boy had become the sole light in her life and her attempts to stay near it were burning her to ashes. She was reaching the limit of her tolerance as it were. Zouken figured that in a couple more months, six at the most, she would break completely and he would be able to mold the remaining pieces into whatever form he desired.

It would be an extremely delicate process and he had to carefully monitor from this point on but the result was all but guaranteed now. He would have to keep an eye on the boy though, maybe it was time to separate them? At least for their trips into the pit. It would speed up Sakura's collapse while also giving him an opportunity to start laying the future groundwork of her mind. Plus, despite knowing the boy was not a threat to him at the moment, he still made him slightly… uncomfortable.

It was a very vague feeling, less than a whisper in his subconscious really, but Zouken hadn't survived for as long as he did by being careless. It wasn't like there wasn't a basis for his uncertainty when it came to Harry though. The boy knew a few things he shouldn't. He had tried to be careful about it but he was just a child after all, and he possessed centuries of experience with reading people. The speculative glances toward him when he was going into the pit. His ability to learn things at such a fast pace, too fast to be natural. His ability to shrug off the effects of sleep deprivation. The research that Zouken knew he was hiding but was somehow unable to find anything about.

If the boy was older and had more than two years of magical education Zouken would have felt worried by it. Instead he was more curious and annoyed. He would be cautious with him but Harry was not and would not be his primary focus. No, that was Sakura and he figured that it was about time to… accelerate his plans for the girl. He would even finally have a use for his useless grandson. Who knows, if he was lucky this would finally break the girl and turn her into the good little tool he wished her to be ahead of schedule.

* * *

While Zouken was thinking about his future plans for his granddaughter, Sakura was in her room alone. Sakura being by herself was an incredibly rare thing nowadays as both Harry and her tried to be in at least some sort of physical contact at all times or, barring that, at least within direct sight of each other. They even shared the same room and slept in the same bed. Although Harry didn't sleep much anymore and had been spending more and more time in their shared workshop recently. Most of the time she absolutely hated being separated from Harry for any amount of time and had a hard time falling asleep when he wasn't in the room with her to drive the nightmares away. Today however, she was thankful for his absence.

Harry didn't realize it but the Crest Worms implanted within her generally caused her a large amount of pain when they acted up, which was usually when they were hungry. Since the worms fed off of her Od they grew hungry when they didn't eat enough and fed off other parts of her instead. They also acted up when Zouken was feeling particularly cruel though Sakura wasn't aware of that. Thankfully that usually wasn't an issue since she possessed a large amount of Od which was enough to satiate their hunger.

Their needs had been growing over time however and her expenditure of prana when practicing Magecraft was not doing her any favors. It should have been near impossible for her to practice Thaumaturgy in the first place as the Crest Worms were supposed to devour any prana circulating in her body. She was only able to do so because the worms still hadn't fully taken over in their role as pseudo-circuits and (unbeknownst to her) Zouken actively suppressing the worms' instincts.

The reasons why Harry hadn't notice was twofold. First was that Sakura was so used to pain that it never showed on her face, her only response had been a slight stutter in her step or a small twitch. Harry had noticed those but when she had said it was nothing he had simply accepted her words at face value. Although the only reason why that has held up so far was related to the second reason. Harry had such ridiculous amounts of Od, and the regeneration of his reserves so quick, that his worms never went hungry. If Zouken had decided to agitate his worms that wouldn't have matter but he never had, likely because he enjoyed the irony of Harry failing to realize when she was in pain.

While she didn't want Harry to notice and, as a result, worry about the pain she was in that was not why she was almost glad that he wasn't in the room with her at the moment. No, the reason why she was thankful was because of what she was currently doing. Recently the affects the worms had when they became agitated had changed. Instead of pain they made her feel warm and tingly in certain places and if she didn't do something to… relieve the sensation it got progressively worse. She had quickly figured out how to deal with the problem but she always felt extremely filthy afterwards and the thought of her Harry seeing her like this was terrifying. What if he looked at her in disgust? What if he hated her for what she was doing? What if he stopped caring for her because of it? Because of those fears she made sure that he was away and likely to not come back anytime soon before she dealt with her problem. It had worked so far as he had thankfully taken to staying in their workshop all night before coming back to change in the morning.

Tonight her problem just didn't seem to go away however and she was close to crying from the increasing level of discomfort she was in. Sakura had gotten to the point where the feeling went away a few times now and was working on her latest attempt when she heard a sound that caused her heart to drop. The door was opening.

Contrary to Sakura's fears however it wasn't Harry that had opened the door to their room. No it was someone far worse. It was her older brother Shinji looking like he had just been pushed into the room from the other side. Something that was confirmed when she heard her grandfather speak before he slammed the doors shut, his words caused a cold feeling of dread to form in the pit of her stomach.

"Even you should be smart enough to figure out what to do from here boy, I'm going to bed."

Shinji frowned at the words but said nothing in response. The look changed to a cruel smirk that proved he was related to the old monster soon after when he turned his attention to Sakura. Sakura, who had hidden her current condition by covering herself with the bedsheets, felt truly terrified at the look. Then, when Shinji took a bottle out of his pocket and spray its contents in the air, she started to feel the burning intensify and her mind growing hazy. The last thing she heard before the haze fully enveloped her mind was Shinji laughing cruelly and the sound of cloth rustling.

* * *

Harry had been going without sleep for about a month and a half now and the strain was finally getting to him. Thanks to Memory Partition (which he had achieved his third partition in at the same time he stopped sleeping) he was able to "rest" one or two parts of his mind while the remaining part(s) continued to work if he desired. Harry didn't quite understand how that worked exactly since that wasn't how the brain was supposed to work but he wasn't going to complain. The reason likely had to do with the interaction between his partitions, Thought Acceleration, his stupid levels of Od and the unique nature of his existence if he had to guess. But even with that he was reaching his limit.

Thankfully his driving himself into the ground had paid off well. His magical studies had shown considerable advancement across the board and he had even found a possible way to escape from Zouken's control. Harry had found his idea from a small passage in a book about Sacraments, more specifically the Baptism Sacrament. The Baptism Sacrament was general a weak mystery but when used to exercise demons, wraiths and other spiritual entities its power was enough to disperse anything below the level of a Servant, something the weak fragments of Zouken definitely were.

Unfortunately, the book had been more of an overview/introduction of the Holy Church and had not given him any more information than that, let alone the theory behind invoking the mystery. Harry knew that he had hit upon the right track though. If his theories about Zouken were correct then his existence was akin to a spiritual entities using possession to maintain its existence in the world. For Zouken he was "possessing" his numerous Crest Worms and that was the reason there were pieces of his soul embedded in them. If he could somehow find a way to recreate something similar to the Baptism Sacrament, he could purge the soul fragments present in both Sakura and himself. That of course still left the worms inside of them but without the connection between the soul pieces Zouken couldn't control them, leaving a much more manageable problem.

Finally having a potential solution had galvanized Harry into his rather frantic research into the subject, which he split into two parts. The first part was studying more into Formalcraft and rituals. It wasn't that he needed to use them for the boost in power that utilizing mana would give, he figured that he likely had enough power to enact any mystery directly if he knew how. Rather it was because rituals were much easier to use, and more diverse in their uses, when trying to deal with things like spiritual entities and exorcisms. After all the summoning of Servants, which were incredibly powerful spiritual entities, relied on a Formalcraft ritual after all.

The second part was research into the Holy Church and their system of Thaumaturgy. Hopefully by doing so he could find a clue as to how they enacted their mysteries, and from there figure out the Baptism Sacrament. This was much easier said than done however, as, despite being the most widespread system of Thaumaturgy in the world, information about it was jealously guarded by the Church. If you weren't a member of their organization, it was almost impossible to learn their mysteries. This meant that most books about the subject were little more than guesswork and theories created by the few Magi interested in the subject, a pitifully low number as most Magi looked down upon the Church. Zouken, surprisingly, had a large collection of reading material about the church though, which made Harry curious but not enough to distract him from his goals.

Currently his progress into the second part of his research was meager. He had a few personal theories about how Sacraments work but his attempts to recreate a similar mystery was an uphill battle. The first part of his research had much better progress though, and that was what he had been working on for the past seven hours. Sakura had left him to go to bed about four hours ago so he had been able to concentrate fully on his research. For his troubles over the past month and a half he had managed to come up with a Formalcraft ritual that should, theoretically, be able to purge all the souls within the ritual circle. It should be useable against Zouken's worms but, at least for the moment, there was no ability to specifically target one soul nor to focus only a specific entity possessing someone.

Still Harry was proud of his work so far and hoped he'd be able to finalize the ritual within the year, or even sooner if he could figure out how Sacraments work or he got his hands on the Baptism Sacrament somehow. It didn't seem like his fairy-godmother was going to be helping him this time though as he had still yet to get any random books on the topic, or any other. Now however, Harry decided he would take a break and sleep for once. It being the weekend he didn't have to get up early in the morning so he didn't have to worry about sleeping in. Hopefully he didn't wake up Sakura when he entered the bed, she had seemed rather out of it lately and he wanted her to get some good sleep for once.

When Harry left his workshop he was greeted to the sight of a smirking Shinji standing in the hallway. The sight of Shinji always left him with an unpleasant feeling, somewhere between disgust and anger, due to his attempts to bully and degrade Sakura. Seeing the smirk on his face only intensified those feelings before another feeling, more of a faint tingling in the back of his head, appeared. That feeling was a mix between wariness and fear. Not of Shinji of course, he had beaten up the fourteen-year-old enough times that he didn't fear him at all. Instead it was more like the fear that something bad had happened.

Shinji seemed to notice his discomfort (the teen reminded Harry more and more of Zouken every day) and his superior looking smirk widened. He didn't say anything though so Harry ignored him before resuming his journey to Sakura's and his shared room. The closer he got to the room however, the more intense his feeling of unease became. It got to the point that he was readying one of his mysteries in case of an attack as he prepared to open the door.

Harry was not prepared for what he found inside and the sight caused him to freeze for a moment from a combination of shock and horror before he charged towards the still form of Sakura. Sakura, his Sakura, was lying on the bed completely unmoving, blood slowly dripping out of the cuts on her wrists, the only thing prove she was still alive was the faint rising of her chest as she breathed shallowly. She was also completely unclothed. Harry had had enough prior experience with his uncle to recognize what had happened to her from that sight and the smell in the air. Pure, unadulterated fury rose in him so quickly and with such intensity that it was all that he could do to beat it back enough to maintain a clear head. Sakura likely wouldn't live if he went charging off to mutilate Shinji without treating her. So he crushed his anger ruthlessly and pushed it into the farthest corner of his mind so he could maintain a, relatively, level head, the action also serving to quell the violent waves of raw prana he was emitting from his body.

Thankfully Harry had learned some basic healing mysteries but he almost didn't use them when he looked into Sakura's eyes. She wanted to die. She didn't want him to save her. She wanted him to let her go and Harry couldn't bear to maintain eye contact with her. He wasn't going to grant her wish; he couldn't grant her wish. She was too important to him and if she left he would soon follow. So he turned his eyes away from her face as he focused on healing the slashes she had made on her wrists.

It took him a few minutes and various different healing spells to close the wounds and increase Sakura's naturally healing rate and the production of blood cells) but she would live. Harry still refused to look at her face though. How could he? He had kept her alive in this hellish existence for his own selfish reasons. So he stood by the bed in silence, only moving once in order to cover Sakura in a clean sheet. Harry wasn't sure how much time passed until the silence was broken as Sakura spoke for the first time since he found her.

"Why? I don't deserve to live. I'm filthy, tainted and I don't deserve it. I don't have the right to feel your warmth anymore. So why? Why did you save me!?"

The words were nothing more than a broken whisper, filled with self-loathing and desperation, but he heard her… and he understood. The feelings of shame, disgust and violation. The feeling that you were worthless. The belief that it had been your fault that it had happened. He understood all of it because he had gone through it himself. He might not have reached the point of suicide, Harry was too stubborn and too spiteful to give his relatives the satisfaction of bringing him to that point. But still he knew what she was feeling, and because of that he knew the words that she both hoped for and needed to her. So Harry did the one thing he had wished someone would have done for him. He got into bed, pulled her tightly into a hug and whispered the words she desperately need to hear into her ear, while channeling the raw emotion and intent behind his words like he had done two years ago on their first meeting.

"Your life has meaning to me. It doesn't matter how filthy you think you are. It doesn't matter that you don't feel like you deserve to live, or deserve my kindness. I want you to live. I feel like you deserve all the love I give you. I saved you because I want to live with you. I saved you because you're the most important thing in my life. It doesn't matter how filthy you feel; I will always see you as the beautiful girl that fills my life with happiness. And I won't allow anyone, **ANYONE,** to make you feel that used, that violated, again. I swear this on my very soul."

A blinding flash of light followed Harry's heartfelt words, but he barely paid it any mind. His focus was entirely on the desperately sobbing girl in his arms and the retribution he would bring on Shinji and his grandfather. They would be escaping tonight, one way or another, this would be the last night they would ever spend in this hell on Earth.

* * *

Sakura cried for hours in his arms before she was finally claimed by sleep. He got himself out of bed at that point, despite his reluctance to cease comforting her even while she was unconscious. But he had work to do, and he wasn't going to spend a minute longer than he had to in this house. The first thing he did was set up a veritable wall of Bounded Fields around the room. Some were to prevent physical means of entering the room. Some were for magical means. Some were to prevent being spied upon and others still were more experimental in nature and ranged from attempting to block the presence of spiritual entities to warding against "evil". Whatever field he could think of he put up before he finally felt satisfied enough to work on the step that would either kill them both or set them free. Odds were fifty to one against them living but he would rather have both of them die together than to have Sakura suffer _that_ once more.

So he prepared his incomplete ritual for purification and purging of souls. He used every bit of information, applied all his knowledge on rituals and Sacraments, even those that he, or others, had only guessed/theorized about, to the ritual. He even added rune combinations that might be useful to the thing and he had no idea how those would interact with any of the other parts. Anything and everything he thought might give them a better chance he did. He had also created the entire circle, including runes, with his own magically charged blood with only the minimum amounts of lead and other materials necessary for it to function. He had even placed a copy of the Holy Bible he had procured in the very center of the ritual circle, more of a desperate move than out of any true purpose

All in all, the ritual took a bit over an hour to fully set up and, while they had yet to be disturbed, he was getting anxious. So without further delay he started the ritual. Words weren't required for this ritual to be done, only a steady injection of prana into the circle. So Harry remained silent, as he focused on his desire and his will with the same intensity he had used when he had wished to save Sakura and had appeared in this world. Harry had experimented with his ability to simply will his prana into performing magic but it was a difficult task that was affected heavily by his emotions. Now, when everything counted he attempted to use his flighty ability by channeling the desperation and righteous anger that was threatening to break his control over his emotions. It was the element that would truly make or break the ritual.

When the ritual began, so too did the pain, and it was like nothing he had ever experienced before. It was enough to make him scream in pain for the first time in over five years, and Sakura was doing the same having woken from her unconsciousness. Harry fought to maintain the ritual and keep a clear picture of his desire in his mind, all the while he and Sakura tried to crush each other's hands in an attempt to distract themselves from the agony. Things continued on in that vain for several minutes as the two children screamed their throats raw, before finally something happened.

Dark twisted masses of shadow started to be expelled from both their bodies. Each shadowy blob was tiny, no more than the size of a pinky, but gave off a truly vile presence, which only got worse as their numbers continued to increase. The twisted pieces of soul, or what Harry was pretty sure were pieces of a soul, were being expelled from the inner circle of the ritual, where the Bible was actually glowing faintly, but still maintained their existence. An indeterminate amount of time later the fragments stopped appearing, despite that though the ritual wasn't over and Harry had started utilizing the nearby mana instead of his Od as even his core and circuits were starting to strain at this point.

Also by this time Harry and Sakura had stopped screaming, having lost the ability to do so, but that didn't stop them from trying as the pain they were in somehow **increased**. Suddenly, out of Harry's body appeared a much larger soul fragment just as twisted as the previous ones only this one had a clearly defined, though rather blurry, form. The clearest features were the vaguely snakelike face and the burning red eyes it possessed. Still the ritual somehow managed to expel that soul from his body as well and it quietly joined the surrounding fog of souls that remained in the outer circle. With that piece gone the pain abruptly left Harry and he was left feeling… cleaner than he had ever felt in his life. The ritual still wasn't done though and now it was Sakura's turn to have something other than Zouken's soul pieces get flushed out of her body.

Unlike Harry's unknown passenger Sakura's seemed to come out piecemeal and had no distinct form. Despite that it not only looked more substantial than all the others but it felt so wrong that Harry actually threw up just by being near it. The thing also managed to fight back against the ritual, unlike all the ones souls before it. The gradually increasingly blob of pure evil kept trying to latch itself onto Sakura and connect to pieces of itself still present inside her. It didn't work in the end but the amount of prana Harry had gone through to finally expel it was close to the level present inside a medium quality Caster Servant.

That's where things went wrong. While Harry's ritual had, rather miraculously, worked for the process of purging themselves of foreign souls he had failed to include what to **do** with the souls in the ritual design. Harry had believed, incorrectly, that purging the souls from their bodies would cause them to disperse harmlessly into the void. That however, took a period time on the order of days to happen at the least. Normally this screw up wouldn't be too much of a problem as the pieces of Zouken's soul were too weak individually to repossess an unwilling magus as a host. What Harry didn't know about however, where the shards of the tainted grail in Sakura and the soul fragment of a dark wizard called Voldemort in him.

The result was the souls of Voldemort and Angra Mainyu devouring the weaker souls around them in an attempt to gain more strength. Harry luckily noticed this happening and felt a strong sense of foreboding at the sight. Thus he quickly decided to listen to the feeling and, after reinforcing his body to the breaking point, scooped Sakura up with his arms and bolted out of the room. Thankfully the souls were neither between them and the exit nor focused on them at the moment so they were able to get out with little trouble. The last thing Harry saw as he left the room was a, now vaguely human shaped, ball of darkness fighting with the much more substantial looking snake-man. Something else Harry was thankful for was his decision to dress Sakura before moving her from the bed. He cared little for her lack of dress, beyond the painful reminder of what it meant, but he had figured she would be more comfortable waking up in clothes than without after what happened to her. Also he doubted she'd appreciate being seen naked by people other than him.

Harry had just made it out of the wing of the manor when he heard two things. One was the absolutely furious voice of Zouken Matou yelling at "what have you done boy!" accompanied by the sickening sound of thousands of his worms moving toward them. Harry wanted to do nothing more than use ever possible mystery he could in an attempt to make the old monster suffer but he fought the urge as he continued to run towards the front door and the freedom it represented. If any thought of fighting Zouken lingered in his mind despite his current need to protect Sakura, it died when he heard the other noise. It was a human screaming in rage, Harry was sure of that, but at the same time there was something so fundamentally wrong and inhuman about the voice that he knew that it wasn't caused by a person, couldn't be caused by a person.

The sound caused even Zouken himself to falter and focus toward the direction of the bedroom wing of his manor. Harry didn't even twitch at the noise and kept running full speed toward the freedom the front door promised. If Harry was a normal person, he would have been frozen by the sound as it brought up feelings of All the Evils of the World, all the sins, all the depravities, within them. Even someone as ancient as Zouken who had seen and done countless terrible things in his life was briefly frozen by the anger of Angra Mainyu. But Harry wasn't normal and he barely even noticed it. The only thought in his mind was getting Sakura to safety, nothing more, nothing less.

Which was why they managed to exit the mansion that had been their own personal hell before Zouken could react quickly enough to stop them. They had barely made it a third of the way down the street however before everything went to hell. The Matou ancestral home… disintegrated as an old monster tried, and failed, to fight against a reborn fragment of the Zoroastrian God of Evil. At that point Harry finally looked behind him for the first time, though he didn't stop running even then.

The… thing that was in the ruins of the Matou manor looked like the snake-man that had been purged from his body but with a few key differences. For one its body was completely solid looking and had the shape of an adult male of average height. Another thing was that the skin, the parts that were visible at least (mainly the hands, feet and face), was so white it looked like snow while pulsing crimson veins protruded out from it. The rest of its body was covered in some black material that _devoured_ the nearby light and looked vaguely like some kind of robe. What was most unsettling about the things appearance was that the snake-like face now had eyes that were pure black instead of the burning red it had been before. That was _without_ saying anything about the visible aura of black and crimson prana that was surrounding the figure.

If Harry had the time to consider such things or believed it little more than trivial issue he would have been upset about the rather blatant supernatural display being shown publicly in the early morning light. Whether the existence of magic was exposed by this being's or his own actions wasn't something that Harry truly cared about at the moment though. Instead what he had to worry about was how much attention the thing standing in their former residence was paying them. Harry didn't even hesitate in his response.

"My Dreams are my reality."

Harry's personal aria, the phrase that he utilized to both activate his mysteries and to hypnotize himself into believing they were possible. He didn't actually need to use it to perform most of Magecraft of course thanks to his practice, and in fact rarely did, but it did give him a bit more power and control. And Harry would take any advantage he could get right now.

Harry had not really focused on Magecraft suited for combat the last few years. He did have a few mysteries specifically for it, and some that would work well enough for said purpose, but it hadn't been his focus until now. He also had zero experience fighting beyond schoolyard brawls. He just hoped his large reserves would help him balance the scales somewhat. With those thoughts lurking in the back of his mind Harry launched a barrage of Elemental Thaumaturgy at the still motionless creature. Balls of fire, blades of wind, whips of water and spears made from the surrounding concrete were launched as a veritable storm of the elements at the creature born from evil souls. And it battered them aside with contemptuous ease.

He didn't let that bother him though as he kept firing wave after wave as he ran as fast as he could away from the god of evil. He had just managed to reach the end of the street and was about to turn down the next when it finally moved. It took no more than a single step and yet it was now right behind him, its corrupted presence tainting the very air around it. If Harry hadn't noticed and subconsciously used a skilled called Prana Burst (not that he knew its name) both he, and Sakura, would have had a fist shoved through their chests. As it was they managed to escape the blow, at the cost of Harry's right leg being savaged by the pressure it was put under from Prana Burst.

It was at that point that Harry realized that they would die, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The thing was just too fast, too powerful and his Magecraft just too weak for them to escape. He might have released them from the control of Zouken but their freedom would be short lived. If only he could reproduce whatever version of the Kaleidoscope he had used to appear in this world they would be able to live. But it wasn't working; despite him feeling more terror than he had ever before in his life; despite his clear desire to be somewhere, anywhere but here; it just wasn't working. If he had something he had a strong desire to see, or an attachment to, it might have possibly worked. As it was the majority of his memories of his pervious world were bad and he, subconsciously, had no desire to see those people or places ever again.

That didn't stop him trying though and even as the monster stood before them, readying its killing blow he continued to try in vain to wish them away from this place. Then he heard a voice sigh.

"Come on kid, I thought you'd be more interesting than that. Do I have to do everything for you? This is your one free pass, and if you don't make it up to me by being more entertaining in the future well… let's just say I know a lot of… interesting realities I could send you to."

With those words came confusion and before he felt a sensation like being pushed off a cliff. And then Harry and Sakura were gone, hurling through dimensions in route to Harry's former reality.

* * *

Zelretch was a bit disappointed by the boy that had shown up in his reality in such a unique manner. He had been so entertaining to watch for the past couple of years, it was one of the best drama's had ever seen. But then the idiot had to go and put himself in a situation where he was going to die. He had figured the boy would be able to escape himself somehow, and the fact that he hadn't was a bit of a letdown. Still, the boy had the potential to bring him more amusement in the future so he had saved him just this once… sort of.

Basically all he did was give the boy the remaining bit of dimensional coordinates that he needed to travel back to his home reality. The method was extremely brute force and nowhere as pleasant to use, but it was enough for them to escape. That left this… amalgamation of souls to deal with though and Zelretch didn't feel like doing anything, it was too annoying. He didn't care if the thing wrecked this world all that much, he could just travel to one that was exactly the same except the Queen of England farted on live television yesterday instead. If this was his home reality, he might have cared more but this wasn't, it was merely one he more frequently visited, so he didn't. He might tell the Association though… if he remembered.

Which seemed to be a moot point as the thing was now staring at the spot where the boy and his little girlfriend had jumped dimensions at. He wondered if it could see the small jagged tear in realities caused by the brute force approach of his Kaleidoscope. It wouldn't last long and would have no effect on this reality but it could be used to enter dimensional space if one knew how. Which apparently the thing did. Well it wasn't his problem, and it would probably be entertaining enough to watch its flight through the multiverse.

He did wonder why it was so focused on the boy (or was it the girl?) though. Maybe that moldywart fellow's soul had had a bit of an influence on the fragment of Angra Mainyu? If that was the case how much drama would it cause if it ever found the reality of the Harry it was chasing? Zelretch could hardly wait.


	4. Chapter 4

_**AN: Cleaned up, edited and smoothed out as of 11/4/18. Next chapter coming soon.**_

 _Italics for thoughts_

* * *

Kiritsugu Emiya observed the scene quietly, simply staring at the ruined building that was once the Matou Manor, the silence interrupted only by the occasional smothered cough. The former Magus Killer hadn't been in Fuyuki when the incident had occurred as he had been making another attempt to see his daughter. As a result, he got back a few days after the police had already finished their investigation. They had ruled the cause to be a ruptured gas main, causing the explosion and the subsequent destruction of the manor itself while also claiming the lives of the home's two youngest inhabitants. Unfortunately, at least in Kiritsugu's opinion, Zouken himself had miraculously survived the "unfortunate accident".

Of course if it was simply a normal accident or even a normal magical accident Kiritsugu wouldn't have cared enough to pay attention, but what happened here had not been normal even by magus standards. No, something incredibly wrong had caused this and its presence lingered in the surroundings like a thick miasma, one he was intimately unfamiliar with. This "accident" was caused by the same taint that corrupted the Grail, the same taint he had thought he had destroyed. Regardless of the assurances and explanations provided by the Matou patriarch about the incident the Magus Killer knew they were lies. No ten-year-old children would be associated with such a corrupted being willingly. So now he would have deal with the knowledge that the Grail remained tainted and he would die long before he could possibly deal with it again.

So the Magus Killer stood silently, weighing his options, dreading his choices and abhorring the sacrifices that would have to be made so All the World's Evils didn't burn the world. With one last look at the damaged area Kiritsugu Emiya stood up, put his binoculars away and slowly walked back to the home he had made with a young boy. A boy who he saved from the hell he himself had created. A boy who had a simple desire to help people.

 _And_ , The Magus Killer thought bitterly, _a boy who I'm going to turn into a weapon that will continue to strive for my failed dream even after my death._

Kiritsugu almost snarled that last part, though no one could tell through the emotionless mask that was his face. He hated what he had to do but in the end he would do it anyways. He was the man who walked the Path of the Shura. The man who would, without hesitation, sacrifice one to save a thousand. Even if that one was his own son. Despite everything Kiritsugu worked for resulting in nothing but crushed dreams and the loss of the only people he cared about he still wished to save people. That was something Shirou desired as well, above anything and everything else. So he knew that the boy, his son, would sacrifice himself without an ounce of hesitation and with a smile on his face if it meant saving someone else. After all the distorted child's greatest dream was to be a hero.

* * *

Zouken Matou was absolutely furious. Not only had years of effort been wasted, his heir taken, his home destroyed and an order of execution for him nearly been given but he'd lost his trump card for the next Grail War as well. How the boy had managed to not only purge the fragments of his soul in both himself and the girl but purge the tainted Grail pieces as well he'd never know. Zouken had never had any tomes on purification rituals, after all they were the domain of the Church and they guarded their monopoly zealously. Even if he had had such things they shouldn't have worked. The nature of the crest worms (regular or modified) and his own existence should have prevented any known technique from working fully. But it had, and that twisted abomination that destroyed his home and likely killed his "grandchildren" had been the result. Even he had felt a small bit of fear and disgust at the feel of the creature.

The worst part of it all however, at least currently, was that his worm of a grandson still lived. How the useless boy had survived Zouken didn't know nor did he particularly care. Shinji hadn't gotten out unscathed of course, he'd have some rather extensive and rather debilitating disfigurement for the rest of his miserable life but he would live. Normally the Matou patriarch wouldn't have payed attention to the insufferable fool, especially when he was incessantly whining like a child. Honestly, the boy and girl had spent years in the pits each without complaining once and that was exponentially more painful, both mentally and physically, than what he was dealing with. He should know, he had purposefully made the experience as terrible as he could, partly out of pure malevolence and partly out of a need/desire to finally break the two of them.

But did the worm realize this? No he didn't and now the centuries old man had to sit there as the child raged about "losing his toy", "getting revenge" and demanding that **he** "get off his lazy ass and fix him". The useless fool was quite deranged and was quickly reaching a level of annoyance where Zouken would be tempted to kill him. He would have done so long ago actually if he wasn't the only person left on the planet that carried his blood and could pass it on. Though he was having second thoughts about letting Shinji sully the gene pool.

So now, with no competent heirs, the animosity of most of the Magus community, centuries of research and materials destroyed and his base gone Zouken had to come up with a new plan for the rapidly approaching Grail War. He'd have to compete directly this time if he wanted to win instead of playing from the shadows like he preferred, but he had no alternative. He'd win the next war or die, there would be no in-between and if his "darling" grandchildren somhow miraculously survived, he had no doubt one of them would be dragged into the conflict and, when they were, he'd show them his displeasure.

* * *

The sudden displacement was jarring for Harry. One moment he was outside watching the abomination that had sprouted from the purification ritual about to end their lives and the next he was inside what looked like a library. He knew, or at least believed he knew, what had happened. If what the voice of the old man, who he'd bet his left kidney was Zelretch, said could be trusted then he had helped him jump dimensions back to his home reality… hopefully. Even based on the little rumors that Zouken had shared about the man? Multi-dimensional troll? Harry knew that it wasn't wise to trust the Wizard Marshal to do anything out of simple kindness. It was more likely for him to do something, anything really, simply for the entertainment value rather than sentimentality. So it was equally, if not more likely, for the Master of the Kaleidoscope to send him to a completely random reality that would force them into increasingly more embarrassing situations just for a laugh. Hopefully if he hadn't been sent "home" this wasn't in some kind of Magical Girl dimension, Zelretch's last apprentice was apperntly still catatonic from his experience in one over a decade ago. Still either way they weren't dead and they had gotten away from Zouken so things were better no matter what in his opinion.

Harry looked around the building he was in, at least the portions he could see from his position on the floor. It was definitely a library with the long rows of bookshelves, desks and outdated computers. There was nothing unique about it except for the fact that it was empty and all the lights were off, meaning it was either late at night or early in morning. Harry couldn't tell since he couldn't see any windows from where he was.

His cursory inspection over Harry turned his attention to the girl in his arms, Sakura. The girl he had fixated on as a younger child, admittedly, rather unhealthily. The girl he wished to save so badly, despite being fictional and not knowing much about. The girl that he tore open the fabric of reality just to reach. The girl he had spent the last few years living in hell with and the girl who, more than anyone else in either of their worlds, understood him. They had both gone through wretched lives and experiences after all. Both had been abandoned by their families and given to people who passed themselves off as their "family " while subjecting them to every kind of abuse and degradation they could think of. Neither of them had been completely broken where men and women three times their age would have long ago. Both of them had been completely alone until they met each other, at which point both became the centers of the other's metaphorical world. And now, they were free. Tainted, damaged and with reminders of their stay in hell still clinging to them, both literally and metaphorically, but free none the less.

Harry had, had some time over the years since his little jaunt through the multiverse to think about exactly why he had acted like he had and why had done what he had. He knew why he had fixated on Sakura, at least partially; she was someone who could truly understand him despite her "fictional" status. Harry for his part had been both young and broken enough that he had trouble with distinguishing fantasy and reality so her not being "real" hadn't mattered. Even his desire to save her was something he could figure out. In addition to his desire to simply no longer be alone he had subconsciously thought that If he could, somehow, save her than he himself could be saved, hence his slowly growing obsession and near melt down when his fantasy crumbled around him.

What didn't make sense, even now, was how he had initially utilized a bastardized version of the Second Magic in the first place. He had been completely clueless about Magecraft or the supernatural before he became a Matou, and he didn't believe he received any help the first time, no one cared for him at the time after all. So how/why did it happen? It didn't work when he tried using it while trying to escape and it was only the intervention of Zelretch himself that enabled them to travel wherever here was, so how did he do it? If worse came to worse and this wasn't his home reality, he'd need to figure it out if he wanted to leave.

All these thoughts were rapidly revolving in Harry's mind while he was carefully checking over Sakura for injuries, well any new injuries. Despite their rather hectic escape and near death experience Sakura was still asleep, apparently too drained mentally to wake up after the experience of the ritual. Even taking getting a few cuts and bruises along with being near that **thing** was enough to stir her. Her lack of consciousness though was a blessing in his mind, even if it worried him.

It was a blessing because she hadn't had to experience the revolting presence of the thing that had tried to kill them and because her sleep was helping speed up her physical recovery. It worried him though because her dreams were undoubtedly plagued by terrible nightmares and memories. A more practical reason though was that He was too tired and hurt (his right leg was hamburger at the moment) to move them to a safer location by himself. He could, possibly, still defend them if needed using his mysteries since they didn't require movement but they would be sitting ducks.

Harry let out a long tired sigh as he adjusted his hold on Sakura, shifting her slightly so as to make her more comfortable and take the pressure of the right side of his body. There was so many things he had to worry about right now, so many problems that were likely to come up that he just didn't know where to start, or at the least didn't feel like figuring it out yet. There were probably Magi, or at least something equivalent, in his home dimension (Harry was going to assume it was his for the time being) judging by his existence but he knew nothing about what they were like.

Assuming the worst case scenario and that they could detect large scale magical phenomena, which he knew dimensional travel was, what would they do when they found them? If they were anything like the Clock Tower then both of them would wind up as "materials" for experiments no question asked, something that was extremely high on the list of things he did **not** want to happen. Even if they weren't like the Clock Tower the magical community was obviously hidden as the only reference he had seen of magic were in stories and history books. That meant that, at the minimum, there were enforcements in place to prevent the knowledge of magic leaking out to the general public and any group that can enforce such a secret requires a certain level of ruthlessness. Expecting goodwill from such a group was naïve at best and they needed to leave the immediate area before they were found. Doing so led to a whole new list of problems to deal with however.

Besides the obvious fact that he was currently a cripple and Sakura was unconscious there was also the problem of not knowing where "here" actually was. Were they still in Japan or at least this realities version of it? Were they in his home country of Britain or its equivalent? Or were they in some other part of the world? Would he be able to speak the language of the people who lived here? Assuming he could then there was the problem of the current time being late/early morning then even if they made it out of the library then it would be suspicious to see two young children walking around by themselves. This was without even considering the current states of their bodies.

He could just hypnotize them of course but that only worked on people he can make eye-contact with so anyone he doesn't spot would notice something suspicious, especially if they see other people randomly turn away after speaking to them. Even if they could move and not get caught by regular people what's to stop them from being tracked down through magical means? Harry didn't know any mysteries to prevent detection beyond bounded fields and while hunkering down behind a wall of bounded fields until he recovered was technically an option it wasn't very practical. For one thing he wasn't sure how long it would take, or even if it was possible, for his healing factor to heal his mangled leg. For another bounded fields could be broken through and while he could supply a large amount of prana to whatever protections he makes he doubted he could beat back a larger group of more experienced magic users if they came.

Above and beyond all of that though was his concerns about Sakura's mental state and about the crest worms still present in their bodies. He had purged Zouken's soul fragments from them, and whatever the hell was in Sakura's, so they were all mindless beasts now, but mindless didn't mean less dangerous. Zouken, despite his sadism and cruelty, had been able to prevent his pets from simply devouring them from the inside out, and in fact his desire for that to not happen was the only thing preventing it from happening.

Them losing their connection to the Old Monster seemed to have knocked them into a hibernation state of sorts but who knew how long that would last and once they woke up they'll be hungry again. They were always hungry. Harry would be better off than Sakura thanks to his Magical Core and healing factor but Sakura, despite her large Od reserves, wouldn't last long in the face of the unrestrained worms. Harry could possibly remove them by himself if given enough time but it would be risky. Of course time wasn't something they likely had in abundance. So the only real option was to seek medical help to surgically remove them or possibly find a magic user with enough of a conscious and medical mysteries to treat her. At the moment it wasn't an immediate concern but it was a problem that needed a solution in the near future.

Harry wanted to scream in frustration but held it in, it would do nothing but potentially make things worse by attracting unwanted attention. He had come to the conclusion that he was left with really only one option; he'd have to wake Sakura up. It wasn't something he'd been looking forward to doing at any point in the near future after what she had just been subjected to. Sakura… wasn't stable at the best of times, although admittedly neither was he, but with the self-loathing, shame and disgust that would come from what Shinji did on top of that?

That wasn't even considering the current state of his body and the obvious fact that they were no longer at the Matou manor. Sakura was smart and would quickly make the assumption that he somehow escaped with her and gotten injured in the process. Things… would be extremely messy when she learned that. She was likely to become hysterical and, if he wasn't able to break her out of it, fall into another destructive depression cycle. But he had no choice if he wanted to leave before they were discovered. The only good news was that she knew of his regenerative ability, even if it wouldn't likely register in her mind until he had pointed it out several times.

Choice made (not that it was much of one), Harry slowly, ever so slowly, started coaxing her awake. With the ease of long practice Harry gently ran his fingers through Sakura's hair while quietly stimulating her awake with kind feelings and small amounts of prana channeled into her (something he found out both comforted and energized her for some reason). He knew if he woke her up using methods normal people used (i.e. shaking her awake or loudly yelling) she would freak out; he was the same way after all.

It was a bit different for both of them though, Sakura hated being quickly jolted awake because it usually happened when Zouken woke her for a "surprise" trip into The Pit. For Harry it was the same only it also brought up memories from the Dursleys. Waking her up the way he currently was signaled to her unconscious mind that she was safe and that he was there, giving the illusion that she wasn't in hell and was a "normal" girl. Sakura also had a similar, slightly different method of waking him up. Harry only hoped that it would bring the same result despite her most recent… experience.

It took a couple of minutes to wake her, during which Harry got increasingly more anxious about getting caught, but he refused to change his tactics. Sakura deserved any bit of comfort he could provide right now. At first she was a bit disoriented and simply snuggled into his chest more but that faded quickly as her mind fully woke up and the memories came pouring back. Harry could literally see the change as some the remaining warmth and light in her eyes were snuffed out as the full weight and horror of what happened came back to her.

He quickly pulled her into a tight hug and projected feelings of warmth and acceptance as she started hyperventilating. He almost thanked god at that moment that he was such a strong touched based Empath. The feeling of being trapped by another person actually made things worse though, despite the feelings he projected, as Sakura had trouble separating her memories from reality. It didn't take long until one of her arms managed to smack Harry hard enough to knock the wind of him during as she struggled. The surprise and shock of the blow freeing Sakura from his arms when it caused his grip to slaken.

She quickly seized the opportunity to scramble away from him, hitting him a few more times in the process while also managing to step on his mangled leg. Luckily he was too used to pain to cry out at the feeling that induced. Sakura didn't go too far though as her body was simply too exhausted resulting in her collapsing a few feet from Harry where she promptly curled herself into a ball. Tears were flowing out of her eyes like a river but she still remaining quite as her body had unconsciously learned to do over the years.

It took Harry a few moments to recover his breath but as soon as he did he immediately dragged himself over to her and once more tried to comfort her. This time he adding words on top of his projected feelings of comfort while also stroking her hair lightly instead of hugging her. Sakura flinched under his touch despite his changed approach but didn't try to escape again, though whether that was from lack of desire or lack of ability he couldn't tell.

"Sakura, it's Harry. You're safe now, Shinji is gone and we're no longer at the manor. You won't ever have to go back there again, I got us out, we're free, just like I promised you we would be some day."

Sakura's posture and condition didn't change despite his words; she didn't even look at him. Harry forged on anyways.

"I can't even begin to express how much it hurts me to know that I failed to protect you from the one thing you had been spared from so far. I know exactly what you're feeling right now. I know that you're feeling worthless and dirty, like it was your fault that it happened and that you somehow deserved it. But you're wrong and even if you don't believe that yourself then then believe that I do. No matter what happens Sakura, no matter how worthless you believe yourself to be, no matter how dirty you think you've become, to me you are everything. I won't give up on you even if you give up on yourself and I meant what I said when I promised that I'll never let anything like this to happen to you again."

Slowly Sakura gained control of her breathing as Harry's words sank in and the comforting sensation of his hand trailing through her hair and the feelings of utter sincerity in both his words and his projected emotions brought her out of her dark thoughts. Despite his desire to leave as quickly as possible Harry made no move to stop Sakura when, after finally processing his words, she launched herself into his chest and continued to sob uncontrollably. He simply held her in his arms and continued to project the emotion he thought was love into the traumatized girl. It took several more minutes for Sakura to stop crying and regain enough control of herself to notice her surroundings. Harry made no move to hurry her along, despite his fears he would give her this moment no matter the consequences, she deserved at least that much.

"H-harry, Shinji….h-he..." Sakura could barely stutter the words out.

"I know, it's not your fault."

"Bu-But..."

"No buts, no matter how it happened, why it happened or what occurred at any point it is not your fault and I neither blame nor judge you for what happened."

"How can you say that!? How can you believe that!? I'm filthy, used. I don't deserve your acceptance! I don't deserve your kindness and I don't deserve your love! I'm a disgusting person who should have been left behind! That's why you're hurt isn't it!? You escaped because of what happened and got hurt because you were trying to protect me am I right!? You shouldn't have gotten hurt because of someone like me! Someone as unclean as me deserved to stay in that place! It's because of me that you're forced to enter the pit so often! It's because of me that you burned out your body every day desperately trying to find a way out! It's my fault that grandfather tortured you so often! He wanted me to break but I refused and you suffered for it! You should have just escaped by yourself and left me to die! I wanted to die, I deserved to die!"

 ** _SMACK!_** _!_

Harry couldn't take hearing the self-condemnation and loathing in Sakura's words nor the negative emotions he could sense from her and slapped her across her face to make her stop. It wasn't so much the pain of the slap that stopped her, both of them were used to much worse pain to actually be affected by something at that level, but rather the shock that Harry had hit her at all. Harry loved Sakura even if neither of them could tell on a conscious level (he had never experienced it and she had long forgotten it thanks to Zouken), and always treated her as gently as possible. He hadn't even accidently bumped into her before he was so careful with how he treated her. So to say that Sakura was shocked that he had hit her was an understatement, even if her damaged mind felt that she deserved it.

"Sakura! Don't you ever say something like that again. Yes, I got injured escaping and yes I was protecting you when it happened but it was NOT your fault. Zouken may have been extra cruel in his sessions with me because he wanted to crush the last bit of life in you but it was NOT. Your. Fault. Even if it was, do you want to know something? It would be worth it; it **was** worth it! YOU were worth it!

I crossed through dimensions just to be with you in the first place knowing exactly what was happening to you and what I'd be facing. I overworked myself every night and every day to look for a way to save YOU, not me, YOU. I'd have gladly given my life if it meant getting you out of that hellhole, let alone spend a few more years in hell or get a few injuries during our escape. Why? Because no matter what you think of yourself it doesn't change the simple fact that you are the only good thing I have in my life and nothing will change the fact that you mean everything to me."

Sakura could only stare up at him silently from where she lay buried into his chest, tears still running down her face. She wanted to deny the words he said, to deny the truth she could feel in the words he had spoken but she couldn't. Not when she so desperately wanted them to be true, not when she could see the sincerity in his eyes and his love loudly proclaiming its presence through his empathic projection, it's intensity eclipsing even the near all-encompassing darkness of his mind and soul. So she just timidly nodded her head before burrowing further into his chest, letting his words and emotions comfort her as tears once more silently fell down her face.

"Harry…thank you."

"There's nothing to be thanked for."

Sakura just nodded her head gently once again as she fell silent, taking a few minutes to let Harry's presence purge her residual dark thoughts and emotions. Despite wanting to stay in their current position forever, Sakura could feel Harry's anxiety increasing even though he wasn't projecting it to her and thus decided to break the silence.

"How did we manage to escape though? And where are we?"

Her words were muffled but Harry heard them all the same. He was a little surprised that she hadn't questioned him about the whole "crossing dimensions" comment now that she had calmed down but put it out of his mind for now. He hadn't told her about his past other than that it was equivalent to living with the Matous, only without her in the picture, mostly because it hadn't mattered. He had also thought it would be a bad idea to tell the emotionally fragile, abused girl that she didn't exist, albeit in a rather indirect manner. He would explain everything later but now wasn't the time and the sooner he answered her questions the sooner he could move on to the more pressing issue of leaving.

"Honestly, I don't know how we managed. I created a cobbled together ritual for purification/exorcism to cut Zouken's link to our worms that honestly had no right to work. But it somehow did anyways, likely thanks to my unique existence. It purged the parts of his soul inside the crest worms… along with other darker things that were inside both of us. Unfortunately, the worms are still there but he can't use them to take control of us again now.

The ritual wasn't all good however as all the things purged from us started to devour each other, likely in an attempt to get stronger. I had a really bad premonition about what was happening so I just ran. Zouken must have either felt the presence of the thing that formed as a result of the ritual or the loss of his link to us, either way he seemed to realize what was happening. Before he could do anything though the thing finished forming and everything went to hell.

For some reason it was fixated on one or both of us and, after destroying the manor, chased me. None of my mysteries could do anything to it and all my injuries were self-inflicted during desperate dodges. It wasn't enough and I was cornered with my leg crippled so I tried desperately to mimic the magic that somehow brought me to you, all to no avail. We were about to be killed when Zelretch gave me a helping hand with my attempt at performing his magic. That leads us to where we are. I believe we are in a library in my home dimension but I'm not one hundred percent certain.

Regardless I know for a fact that we aren't in the same dimension that you were born in so we're done with Zouken for good. The only problem is that we need to leave the area as I'm pretty sure some kind of magic users exist in this reality and I don't want to test their morals, or lack thereof. I can't walk on my own with my leg like this, hence why I woke you up on the floor of a library rather than a comfortable bed somewhere after removing the worms."

Sakura had a lot of questions but none of them really mattered to her at the moment. His explanation, while condensed, still had a lot of points she wanted to bring up but she just didn't care right now. All the mattered at this moment was that she was so far away from her grandfather that she would never have to see him again and that Harry was here with her. Nothing else mattered. Not the fact that he was from another dimension, now that they both had, had more than just her grandfather's soul inside of them, not that the Wizard Marshall helped them and not that they had traveled to an alternate reality. All that mattered was that Harry was still alive and still wanted her. For while Harry said she was everything to him so to was Harry everything to her. So she just gave him a brilliant smile, stood up and proceeded to help Harry stand.

"Right, you're going to have to support my right side and take things slowly. I think I see the glow of an exit sign over there, let's go."

It was right at this time, when Harry was finally on his feet, or rather foot, Sakura was conscious and they were about to leave the building that Harry's fears were finally realized. Magic users had arrived and had set up what felt like the local equivalent of a Bounded Field. Sakura had also felt the fields being set up as well and they both shared a look full of anxiety and, if one looked deeper, feelings of resignation, like they already accepted the fact that something bad will happen to them. Neither hoped for a fight and hoped that the people that came were nothing like Zouken or the Magi from Sakura's reality and would be actually be decent people, but life had never been kind nor fair to the two of them before and they didn't expect it to be now either.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore woke up with a jerk late at night. It wasn't from the many nightmares he was plagued with, he was too used to those for them to wake him up anymore, but rather from the feeling of an extreme magical event occurring. It was incredibly brief and by the time he had fully woken up it had completely disappeared but he didn't need to be completely cognizant to recognize two important facts. One, the event was far away, though still within a few hundred miles from his bedroom in the Headmaster's suite. And two, that he recognized what kind of magic event had taken place. Someone, or something, had torn a hole open in-between dimensions. That was very bad for many reasons.

For one thing the kind of power required to accomplish such a feat was enormous and not one a single witch, wizard could manage that. Not even a large group of magicals could accomplish such a feat easily. That meant either a dark ritual was involved or an extradimensional entity caused the phenomena themselves. If it was the former it was bad because said rituals involve an enormous number of sacrifices, generally of the unwillingly variety. Said rituals could also only summon dark extradimensional beings, namely Demons, and they were not only EVIL but incredibly hard to kill as well. The last time Demons had been summoned had been in World War Two, and had been used by Grindelwald to conquer all of mainland magical Europe (and parts of Africa). The rituals required for those summonings had been the real reason Hitler had created those concentration camps.

Thankfully Dumbledore highly doubted that this was what had happened. Mainly because no witch or wizard would dare to use such a ritual again. Not only were the summoners just as likely to be killed by the Demons as anyone else with only Grindelwald having discovered the method to direct them. A technique that Dumbledore made sure he hadn't passed on before he had killed him. But also if a summoner did manage to survive the entire ICW would hunt the summoner to ends of the Earth. Not even Voldemort had been insane enough to attempt such a thing during the war. So that left the latter option.

While the entity performing the feat themselves seemed like a much better alternative than a ritual used only to summon Demon that was only on the surface. It was entirely up to chance whether the entity/creature/person/group of people that tore a hole in reality were "good" or not. If they weren't that was bad because they possessed the power to cross dimensions. Even if they weren't inherently evil it remained a fact that weren't of this world and thus it was the Unspeakables that were in charge of the whole event, which didn't bode well for inter-dimensional relations. Unspeakables were very morally questionable individuals and were just as likely to experiment on you as be your friend if they found your existence interesting. And, since extra-dimensional entities technically didn't have any rights, it was obvious which choice they were likely to make in this case.

All this meant that Dumbledore quickly felt a headache forming between his eyes. He was no longer on the ICW nor the Wizengamot and had all but lost his position as "Leader of the Light" but he was still the most powerful wizard in Britain. He also still felt a need to atone for his past mistakes, especially with Harry, and felt that preventing an extremely powerful entity from declaring war on Britain because a few Unspeakables wanted to play Mad Scientist was a way to do so.

Dumbledore was in the middle of donning his robes when that thought hit him and with it a feeling of unease, especially when he thought of Harry in the context of the event. The old headmaster wasn't a seer by any means but he was an incredibly powerful wizard. All magicals possessed a sort of 6th sense, one that warned them of danger or hinted at important things to varying degrees and with varying amount of strength. The stronger magically and the older/more experienced one is the better this 6th sense worked, and right now his was all but screaming at him that his lost charge was involved with this event.

It made sense too when he thought about it. He knew Harry was still alive but all the methods of finding him or determining his health simply didn't work. The only reason Dumbledore knew he was alive was because of the Book of Students hadn't crossed out his name (incidentally this was how he knew Voldemort was still alive as well). The book was connected to Hogwarts and powered by Leylines which were multi-dimensional (well multi-planar which was similar) in nature, thus it would make sense that it could work where other methods failed. All this meant that Dumbledore needed to get there now, before the Unspeakables can take Harry away.

"Fawkes!"

Following his cry, a beautiful red and gold colored bird appeared in a pillar of fire, its very presence radiating warmth and positive feelings. Fawkes was his familiar and with their mental connection and the phoenix's intelligence no further words were needed for him to know what to do. As soon as the bird's longtime partner gripped his tail feathers it flamed away to the location it felt his master desired to go. Dumbledore's sight was obscured by flames for but a second before it faded away. The sight that greeted him was not his familiar bedroom, instead it was a magical warzone. He could see a dozen Unspeakables firing a multitude of spells of the non-lethal variety, likely to not damage their new "specimen", at a rapidly moving target. The spells continued to miss, creating holes in the street and pockmarks on the buildings in the oddly familiar neighborhood. In return the figure, which appeared to actually be a girl around the age of a 1st year student, was apparently directing the shadows and darkness around her to attack her opponents. The Shadows writhed around her lashing out with innumerable appendages at random like an eldritch abomination. The shadows weren't doing any physical damage to the surroundings but any living thing they touched seemed to dry up and crumble into dust, which was even more worrying than if it had been the former.

The battle looked to have started recently as judging by the lack of dead Unspeakables. This was good as it meant neither side had done something that would truly cause enmity between them yet. At least those were his thoughts until he saw the still figure of another child on the ground, hastily dragged behind a nearby car for his protection. His intuition was telling him that the child was Harry and Dumbledore could tell that, while injured and apparently not breathing, he was fortunately still alive. That was good.

What wasn't good was that the girl fighting the Unspeakables had a look of abject fury on her face and the glint of madness in her eyes. It was enough for the experienced wizard to know that the girl was seriously trying to kill her attackers and the only reason they were still alive was because they outnumbered her and could shield themselves magically from her attacks. The Unspeakables in turn were slowly maneuvering towards the downed formed of Harry, likely either to use as a hostage or to simply cut and run with him in tow. If they got him things would end poorly, Dumbledore knew as the girl seemed like she would cut a bloody path through country as she attempted to find them, and so it was time for him to step in.

* * *

Harry and Sakura had just stepped outside the library when they saw this world's equivalent of Magi, it was not a good first impression. The figures were humans, or at least humanoid, and all wore identical outfits, that of dark robes and an even darker cloak that covered the entirety of their faces, masking them behind a dark void, revealing no features what so ever. There were twelve of them and beyond their beyond their varying pieces of wood in their hands (a magical focus perhaps) were all identical in appearance. Or at least appeared to be. Neither of the Magi could tell their genders or ages and something kept making them believe their heights were the same. They both knew it was some kind of mental interference type of magic but every time they cancelled the effect it came back and made them forget what they noticed before. Their overall ominous appearance, threatening posture (they were pointing their foci at them) and the continued used of a mind altering magic basically meant that they were a threat, and both of them were going to treat them as such.

Neither of them liked their odds though so they were going to try to talk to them first. Of course right as they were about to try the, now one hundred percent confirmed, magic users launched a variety multi-color lights at them. The speed was fast but the mysteries were dodge-able even without Reinforcing their bodies, at least they would be if Harry had two working legs and Sakura wasn't currently hindering herself by by helping him stand. Harry could tell that they would both be hit if something wasn't done but he had no mysteries he could utilize to block the attacks. So he did the one thing he could think of to unsure they had a fighting chance.

Harry reinforced his clothes and body to the limit and launched himself and Sakura away from the door while at the same time turning to shield the purple haired girl with his body. He didn't believe he could dodge all the attacks but he felt that he could avoid the majority and hopefully tank the remaining with his reinforced skin and clothes. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way. While he did manage to avoid nine of the twelve mysteries he got hit by the remaining three and his reinforcement did nothing to stop the attacks' effects. Harry was unconscious before he hit the ground.

Sakura, for her part, had frozen at the sight of twelve magical attacks being launched at them without even a word being spoken. She was a rather timid girl and disliked violence thanks to her upbringing (though she never said anything when Harry got in fights with other kids because of her), so she couldn't be blamed for freezing up at the start of hostilities. She promptly unfroze and even calmed down somewhat when she felt her Harry wrap his arms around her. Once her mind refocused Sakura could instantly recognize that he had somehow managed to launch them out of the way of the attacks and was about to thank him for saving her again when she noticed his lack of movement.

Harry, though only the Unspeakables knew it, had been hit by two overpowered Stupefy and a modified stasis charm that the Department of Mysteries specially developed for capture missions. IT was for this reason that Harry was not only unconscious but appeared to not be breathing either. The stasis charm was like an Immobulus only it allowed for the body to be moved by an external source. It also prevented most low-mid powered spells from working on them, including an Enervate, and shielded the body from most physical means of damage. To the Unspeakables this meant that one of their targets was down and ready for transport. For Sakura however, this appeared as if Harry was now dead. Not only dead but that he had died shielding her from harm, that was too much for the incredibly traumatized young girl. She snapped.

One thing that is true of any human is that they have a least a bit of darkness in them. The will or desire to do violence or other dark/ "evil" things. Sakura was no exception. If anything she had more darkness in her than other people thanks to both her upbringing and being exposed to parts of All the Worlds Evil constantly for years, she simply had never embraced it. Now though? When the only light in her life seemingly snuffed out in front of her she unleashed her darkness completely.

Sakura, while she hadn't been told, had, in addition to Water, Shadow as an Element. The Element was, of course, not natural to her and was instead the result of being implanted by shards of Angra Mainyu. While Sakura never developed mysteries utilizing her Element of Shadow she did have an almost instinctual knowledge of how to use it thanks to being in contact with the Zoroastrian embodiment of evil for so long. Thus, blinded by pure hatred and grief, she allowed her instinct to rule her and the shadows heeded her call.

Harry's superhuman leap had not only managed to land them near a parked car but the sheer surprise of what appeared child doing such a thing on one leg was enough for the Unspeakables to pause for a brief second. It was a testament to their experience that that's all that such a feat garnered but it was still a mistake and Sakura was able to capitalize on it enough to move her Harry to a safer place behind the car thanks to her use of Reinforcement.

It wasn't done skillfully as Sakura had no practice with doing so (she basically just flooded her body with prana) but it was enough to give her above human abilities. Thus, the next volley of spells landed behind the Magus as she sprinted to cover, Harry's body cradled in her arms. It didn't take long for her to reach the vehicle and even less time for her to drop of her Harry, by which point it was time for her to make those pieces of filth pay. Sakura's shadows responded to her desire to kill the wizards and struck out with incredibly long tentacles, only to be repelled by incandescent shields of energy. The enraged girl let out an animalistic snarl at the failure and the endless writing shadows surrounding her responded to her agitation by lashing out at random, turning any living thing they touched, from the grass to the few small rodents they hid, to ash as they absorbed the energy within them. Sakura dodged the return fire from her foes before launching her own array of attacks that were shielded against once again. This cycle continued for a couple of minutes before something new entered the equation.

Out of nowhere the two parties were suddenly enveloped by a feeling of immense power, strong enough to feel as if the gravity weighing down on them had tripled in intensity. The Unspeakables collapsed to their knees near instantly but Sakura, thanks to reinforcing her body and the aid of her shadows, was not only able to remaining standing but even launch attacks on her now defenseless enemies. Before her shadows could reach the Unspeakables however, they were once more stopped by a magical shield, only this time it was much strong than before.

The wizards recognized the old man instantly as Dumbledore and, though it was impossible for a non-Unspeakable to notice, frowned in annoyance as a result. Thanks to his presence their mission was likely to be written off as a failure with nothing to show for it unless the old man let them take one or both of the children, which was highly unlikely. Sakura merely turned her rage filled eyes towards the man who had stopped her from avenging Harry and was about to attack him when she was stopped by a single sentence.

"Harry is still alive."

Thanks to Harry, Sakura's ability to both speak and understand English was close to a native speaker's and thus she had no problems understanding what Dumbledore said. The only problem was that she didn't believe him. However, his words, especially him knowing Harry's name, still caused her to falter enough for Dumbledore to launch a spell at Harry. Naturally Sakura was about to attack him in response when she caught sight of the results. Harry was breathing again. That knowledge was enough for Sakura to snap out of her berserker rage and, when the relief of knowing Harry was okay combined with her completely depleted reserves (she had been burning prana she didn't have to fuel her shadows by that point) she collapsed unconscious.

Dumbledore caught her with a silent levitation spell before she hit the ground, releasing a deep sigh as he took in her appearance. The young girl was of Asian Heritage had, strangely enough, naturally purple hair, was of average height for (what he guessed) was a ten-year-old. Her clothes consisted of only simple purple pajama pants and long-sleeved shirt that was a bit roughed up and was wearing no shoes. The only other distinguishing features were her (now closed) violet colored eyes and a red ribbon tied in her hair. Dumbledore could also tell that she had been suffering from nightmares, or at least not sleeping well, thanks to the large dark circles under her eyes but beyond that nothing else. Any more details would have to wait for an in depth examination and for her to be awake for questions. Finished with his brief inspection Dumbledore turned to face the, now standing, Unspeakables.

"These children are no longer your concern. I will take full responsibility for them."

One of the Unspeakables spoke, though not even Dumbledore could tell which one it was.

"Fine, we know we can't force you to change your mind but do know that we will tell our superiors about your interference. While the Department might not involve itself with the Ministry politics do keep in mind that we currently have more friends than you do there."

With those final words spoken the twelve Unspeakables cast a wide area Reparo before taking down their wards and finally Apparated away. Dumbledore released a deep sigh after confirming they had left. He knew it was likely that this would cause future problems but it didn't matter. Hogwarts was beyond the ministry's power and, despite what they said, so was he. The only concern he had was that this will cause problems for Harry and his friend. Speaking of, it was time to finally see the boy for the first time in nearly nine years. Needless to say he was surprised by what he found. But nothing was more shocking, and unsettling, than seeing that his scar was missing.

"My boy, I have no idea what happened to you after you left but I pray, for all our sakes, that what I fear happened hasn't occurred."

With those words Dumbledore levitated Harry next to Sakura before having Fawkes, who had flamed away as soon as he had been dropped off, transport them to the Infirmary. He had children that needed care and fears to either confirm or deny after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: For those that haven't seen my new fic (** _ **which be warned is extremely dark, do not read it if you aren't prepared for fucked up shit)**_ **I recent went back on medication and it's helped me finally have the motivation to write. Ergo, an update! Also I spruced up the previous chapters, fixing mistakes and what not. Only significant change is that Harry's Origin isn't Magic anymore, it's All Elements.**

 _Italics = Thoughts_

Dumbledore stared at the sleeping form of Harry Potter with a frown on his face, and guilt in his eyes. He had just been told the results of the medical scans Madame Pomfrey performed and they painted a dark and horrible picture of his life. He had already known that Harry's life with his relatives was awful but he had prayed that, where ever he had ended up, Harry would experience a better one. Unfortunately his prayers seemed to have gone unanswered if the presence of over a hundred revolting worm like creatures in his body was anything to go by. Then there were those strange branches connected to his magical core, his absolutely mangled right leg and the cosmetic changes he had gone through as well to worry about.

The only good news Pomfrey had for him was that there was no longer any signs of possession on Harry. Although the fact that very faint reside of such was present on all the worm creatures had been alarming to find out. Thankfully the being was no longer residing within them now, though getting the creatures out of Harry looked to be a tricky issue to solve without outside aid. Madame Pomfrey was already contacting some specialists as he sat there so hopefully they'd get that aid sooner rather than later.

Then there was the young girl that Harry had apparently come back with. Her condition was even more appalling than Harry's to him. Not only did she have worm creatures inside of her like Harry but there was evidence that she had very recently been sexually assaulted as well. Dumbledore had nearly blasted a hole in the castle's walls he was so angry at the discovery. He reined himself in however, it wouldn't do to disturb the patients while they were recovering.

" _What kind of hellish place had Harry disappeared to?"_ Dumbledore couldn't help but wonder. " _and why does life seem intent on making the poor boy suffer."_

Unfortunately, he had had no answer to the latter question but he could get an answer to the former once Harry woke up. The question was should he wait for him to wake up naturally or undo the effects of the stunner he had been hit with to wake him up now. It was a question he couldn't come up with an answer to. He was…afraid of facing Harry knowing he played a role in his abuse. In the end Dumbledore continued to wrestle with the problem for hours, never truly making a decision until it was made for him. Harry was waking up.

* * *

Harry was Dreaming. He knew he was but... he also knew he wasn't at the same time. Idly he reached out his hand to touch one of the flying elemental balls that were seemingly abundant in the dusky forest he had found himself in. The one he was currently reaching towards was made of ice and was constantly shifting its shape through a large number of breathtaking geometric patterns. Upon making contact with the ball Harry's arm started to freeze, yet he felt no pain, no cold.

He didn't feel any panic at feeling his own arm freeze either nor when he saw permafrost creep up his shoulder. Why should he? This was his world. He made the rules and nothing here could hurt him unless he let it. Another ball floated past his head and Harry instinctually reach out and grabbed that one too. This one looked like a writhing ball of roots, leaves and branches that instantly started to plant those roots inside his arm and grow wildly. Again there was no pain, just curiosity as he watched the process.

Both sides of his body ever so slowly started turning into their respect elements. Ice on his left and plant? Wood? On his right. They didn't touch each other as they spread out and there was a clear dividing line between them that remained completely normal. Harry wondered what would happen if he removed that. His idle musing become reality with just a thought and he watched in fascination as the two elements started merging together. The roots of the plant were turning into ice, the Ice on his skin was getting covered in frost covered leaves. It was an almost hypnotic process to watch.

That thought caused Harry to finally react negatively. Despite knowing that he wasn't being hypnotized, that he **couldn't** be hypnotized in this place, he still reacted as his instincts demanded by circulating his prana through his brain. The beautiful intermingling of the elements stopped at that point and instead became a war for dominance over his body. That sight served to further panic him despite still not feeling any pain. He no longer wanted to be here anymore.

And with that thought he wasn't. Instead he was waking up, albeit exceedingly slowly. It felt like his mind was being forced to wade through a swamp to come back to consciousness. A rather odd sensation that left him out of it even after his mind was fully booted up. That didn't stop him from noticing that he was lying on a bed however, something that didn't make sense considering what he last remembered. He wanted to shoot up out of his bed and ready his magic for a potential threat but his body refused to comply, something which was exceedingly odd. Then he remembered he had been hit by magical attacks of some kind and flooded his body with prana to purge any foreign influence present. It worked though before he got up he heard a voice that stopped him.

"No need for alarm my dear boy. You are in a medical facility; no harm will come to you here."

The voice was male and sounded incredibly old, grandfatherly even, if Harry knew what that actually felt like. It was also speaking English. Quickly turning to face the source of the voice he found that his guess was right, the man **was** extremely old and, judging by his attire, a rather eccentric magic user of some kind. But none of that mattered at the moment, something else was far more important.

"Where. Is. Sakura." Harry said each forcefully as he got out of bed, balls of flame, spikes of ice and arcs of electricity appearing around his body as he readied himself to kill the person in front of him if his answer wasn't to his liking. The old man widened his eyes in surprise at his display of magic, odd considering he felt just as powerful as he did magically and thus should easily be capable of such low level mysteries as well.

"I'm assuming Sakura is your female companion?" The old man hurriedly asked, making sure to come off as least threatening as possible.

"Yes." Harry's tone was clipped, his mind now running through an endless number of escape plans as he pushed his partitions and thought acceleration to their max level.

"She is currently resting on another bed in the infirmary, I can take you to her if you'd like." The old man replied affably.

Harry didn't respond verbally instead opting to nod his head and physically direct the man to lead him to her.

"Very well, follow me. The infirmary is split between male and female sides so she's not far, just through that door over there."

Harry ignored the old man, making sure to stay behind him, his mysteries still active, as they made their way to the aforementioned door. Harry felt instant relief when, upon crossing through the doorway, no trap was sprung and he saw Sakura peacefully sleeping on a cot. He wanted more than anything to run to her and comfort her, even if she likely wouldn't notice in her unconscious state, but he held himself back. There was no way he was leaving his back turned to the magic user, not when he knew nothing about him or the magic society he was part of as a whole.

"As you see your female companion is fine Harry my boy." The man stated causing Harry to jerk his head and stare at him intensely, his mysteries growing a bit in power in response to the new threat the man now posed to him.

"How do you know my name!" Harry hissed out as he worked his way between the magic user and Sakura.

"That's a bit of a long story, but one I'd be more than happy to tell you if you answer some of my questions in return." The man said, still looking completely at ease despite the situation.

"Explanation first." Harry stated simply causing the old man to sigh slightly.

"Very well, though do you mind if I sit down while I speak? I am an old man and can get tired easily nowadays I'm afraid. "

Harry just jerkily nodded his head and pointed to a chair that let him easily keep both him and Sakura in view at the same time.

"Thank you." The man said with a smile as he sat down. "Well to start off how about an introduction. My name is Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster and teacher at the school this infirmary is located in, and like you I am a wizard."

"Harry, just Harry." Now that he was free he no longer wanted any association to the Matou family and his previous last name of Potter just had too many painful memories to want to use again.

The old man raised an eyebrow at that. "Do you perhaps not know you last name? If so I can enlighten you if you so desire."

Harry narrowed his eyes, a stone spear joining his collection of mysteries floating around him as he once again raised his perceived threat level of the old man. "I've had two last names and I despise both of them, so no, I do not."

The man looked saddened, and guilty, at that. "I see… Well, I promised you an explanation didn't I? Obviously I know who you are and the reason for that is that I knew your parents and was present for your birth."

That revelation rocked Harry but he managed to retain his calm despite the surprise. Sakura needed him to protect her and he couldn't afford any slip in attention anymore. Not after what happened last time.

The man continued his explanation without further prompting after seeing Harry was still paying full attention to him, his attack spells never once wavering.

"I'm not sure how much you know about your parents…" Dumbledore trailed off leadingly but Harry didn't take the bait and simply continued to stare at him. "Well if you didn't know your mother was Lily Potter, formerly Evans, and your father was James Potter and they both loved you very much."

Harry couldn't help himself, he snorted derisively at the statement. This caused Dumbledore to look sad and guilty once more.

"It may be hard for you to believe but it is the truth. They protected you with their very lives and paid a most terrible price for doing so, one that left them unable to care for you. The only reason you went to your… relatives is because of that… and an old man's folly."

Harry immediately launched his stone spear at Dumbledore, the projectile whistling through the air before it impacted, hard, on the stone flooring directly next to his foot. Dumbledore didn't even blink.

"Yes, as you seem to have guessed. I was the one who placed you with your relatives, and it is a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I had been of the wrong opinion that family would love family no matter what, that blood was thicker than water… obviously I was wrong. I even compounded my mistake by making an error in the magical protections I had placed on you and the home making me unable to do anything about the abuse you suffered. That's no excuse however and while I am incredibly sorry and willing to make amends anyway possible I also know I have no right to your forgiveness."

Dumbledore eventually finished, bowing his head after he finished his explanation as if in wait of the retribution Harry was going to unleash upon him. No such thing came however and, after several seconds of silence Dumbledore lifted his head to look at the boy he had so grievously wronged all those years ago. Surprisingly the rage he had been expecting to see was noticeably absent. There was anger of course but it was tempered, restrained by something. Dumbledore just needed to turn his head slightly to the side to see what that something was.

"…She must mean a lot to you." Dumbledore stated softly.

"She mean's everything to me." Harry replied so matter-of-factly Dumbledore didn't doubt that he was speaking directly from the soul.

"I see… do you mind answering a… delicate question for me then?" Dumbledore asked hesitantly.

Harry turned his head to study the old wizard for a good long minute before finally nodding his head, simultaneously undoing his attack mysteries as he did so. Inwardly Dumbledore sighed in relief at that, knowing that he had finally gotten a small measure of Harry's trust.

"Do you… know of young…Sakura was it?" Harry nodded his head. "Do you know of young Sakura's…condition."

Harry stiffened and his face twisted into an ugly rictus of fury, his hated and desire to kill Shinji so intense that it was almost a physical thing. Dumbledore recoiled slightly at the feeling, worried that a child so young could produce such a feeling, and guilty because he felt like it was at least partially his fault. Harry didn't answer the question however, though he didn't really need to either at that point.

"I see... I had the mediwitch heal her the best she could so there won't be any long term…issues beyond the psychological ones. Except for one thing….the….creatures inside of you both. I had Madame Pomfrey, the mediwtich I talked about, call for some specialists but I wanted to know if there are any potential risks to removing them. And indeed if they should be removed at all. We assumed so but…"

Harry turned to look at Sakura for a moment, not out of any reluctance to answer the question, but simply to make sure their conversation hadn't disturbed her rest in any way. When he saw that it hadn't it was only then did he answer the question.

"Yes. More than anything we want them removed. And no, there are no more risks to taking them out, I took care of that." Harry stated vehemently.

Dumbledore nodded his head though was curious about his last comment. "Would you mind explaining those risks? I'm not judging your belief or competency but any magical residue or physical complication could interfere with the medical procedure that would remove them, potentially even resulting in the problem getting worse."

Harry shrugged lightly, he didn't particularly mind telling the man even if he didn't fully trust him still. It wasn't like the information could harm him in any way, the only way that was possible was for that… **thing** to show up.

"They used to contain soul fragments of the man who created them, which let him remotely control them and potentially allow them to form a new consciousness if his main one was ever damaged. I'm not sure about the last one though, I wasn't able to complete my research into the topic when I was forced to act to remove them."

Dumbledore couldn't help but stand up in shock and horror, his face paling dramatically as he did so. Harry couldn't help but be surprised at the reaction, not having thought it would be that big of a deal. Sure it was bad but not enough that the old wizard should look like he was about to have a heart attack.

"Are you sure you managed to remove them." He asked, his voice sounded incredibly urgent despite knowing from the scans that no possession was left. It was possible that magic from another dimension could fool their spells after all.

"Yes." Harry nodded firmly. "While my purification ritual was not complete it managed to work anyways for its designed purpose. It even purged other dark souls that we both had inside us in addition to the worms. I saw it with my own eyes them all leave…though the ritual had unintended consequences."

Dumbledore sank back onto his chair in relief. "So that's how it disappeared…" He said quietly, though not quietly enough that Harry couldn't hear it.

"You know about the one that was inside me I take it?"

He nodded his head. "Yes. It was a fragment of the man who attacked you and your parents when you were just over a years old. You know you're quite famous in our world for that night, as distasteful as that may sound to you."

It was rather distasteful but Harry didn't have enough feelings about his parents to be overly bothered by it, just mostly irritated/curious. "Why? Sounds like an odd thing to be famous for."

Dumbledore nodded his head at that. "True. Though it was the spell you survived and who that spell came from, along with the aftermath of the attack, that led to your fame. I'm assuming you have little to no idea about the magical world here despite your ability to perform magic? The dimensional breach you appeared through would suggest that but I wanted to ask just in case."

Harry grimaced. "You felt that huh, and so did that other group obviously. How bad was it?"

The old professor said tiredly. "Your return to our world was likely felt by all the magical communities of Europe. There are…ways of detecting such phenomena that are monitored by all the European governments do to some troubles in the past."

Harry tsked. "Great and I'm assuming those hooded mages were the part of this government that monitored such activity? They likely also wanted to use us for experiment material or some such right?"

Dumbledore nodded. "You are correct, though your ability to see their attentions so easily is a bit troubling."

Harry snorted. "Magi are always the same, I know one when I see one."

Dumbledore filed away the word Magi to bring up later when Harry was feeling more comfortable and willing to share his story with him.

"Indeed. Now back on topic I'll give a basic summary of magical history before explaining your fame. First off wizards and witches, that is people like me and you, have existed in one form or another since even before mundane humans evolved into their current form. We worked and lived alongside them for many, many years until cracks started forming. Some magicals, feeling superior that they had magic and the mundanes didn't, took the guise of gods and ruled over normal humans as tyrants, using their faith and worship to bolster their magic to unseen heights. I'm sure you've heard of some of them, like Zeus, but the point is that this was the era of history when magicals truly started seeing themselves as superior than mundane, even those who weren't posing as gods, instead of as equals.

Time passed, some 'gods' fell while others were created until eventually what become the basis for Christianity came about. Not even magicals know the truth about whether or not the faith was created by a magical or there actually was a true God but that didn't matter. Pretty soon the religion started spreading, then Islam all the while mundane humanity continued to grow in numbers until eventually magicals were outnumbered badly enough that we'd lose any conflict simply through weight of numbers. That was when magicals started retreating from the general community at large. Not completely at first as many simply moved to more out of the way places instead of living in predominately mundane communities.

Some magicals continued to try and maintain their influence by becoming advisors to emperors, kings and nobles, while others plied their trade of providing healing, aiding agriculture and farming, construction of homes and castles or even acting as tutors for wealthier families. Then came the dark ages, the inquisitions and eventually witch burnings. Combined with the appearance of the first firearms magicals saw that living in the mundane world was growing too dangerous and decided to totally isolate themselves. Entire magical communities were hidden and the magical society faded into myth and legend.

The magicals however weren't completely cut off from the mundane world as mundane-born, witches and wizards with no magical parents, kept being showing up every so often. This fact didn't sit right with some members of society and the belief of pureblood supremacy, that those with long history of magical parentage, were better than mundane-borns started taking root. This sentiment continued to grow in strength and power among elements of the magical population, though most of it centered here in Britain, until eventually a civil war happened. A Dark Lord going by the name Voldemort created his own power base and attempted to take over the country for a decade.

Those on the side of the Light, led by myself, fought against him and we just barely managed to keep him in check. It was a fragile stalemate however and we knew we were losing ever so slowly. That is until the Dark Lord attacked your family. No one is sure quite what happened that night, not even myself, but the end result was your parents falling into comas, Voldemort disappearing and you Harry, surviving with that scar and a piece of his soul in your head. The people of Britain were so happy that the war was now over that they crowned you their savior and The-Boy-Who-Lived for supposedly surviving the Killing Curse, one of the three unforgivable spells that is unblockable and kills those it hits instantly without fail."

Dumbledore finally completed his rather long summary with a sigh. In the grand total of the history of magic his summary was barely even adequate but it served its purpose well enough in this instance.

Harry digested Dumbledore's words quickly, looking at them every way he could with the aid of his mystery enhanced brain.

"Three things. First is that I noticed you didn't include Sakura when you said people like us. Am I right in assuming there's a difference between us magically? Two, you talked about Purebloods and their beliefs like they are wrong, why? And three, you said I supposedly survived the curse, does that mean you have doubts?"

Dumbledore nodded his head affably, though inwardly he was quite worried that Harry seemed to think the Purebloods were right. "As for your first question there is indeed a difference. Wizards and Witches have magical cores while she does not. Instead she has some sort of branches around the area our cores usually reside, something that you now seem to possess as well I might add."

Harry raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised by the fact that Dumbledore just implied he hadn't had his circuits when he was born. "They're called Magic Circuits and they act like a nervous system to channel prana, magical energy, through."

"Fascinating, I would like to discuss with you more on topic of these magic circuits at a later date I should think."

Harry shrugged neither approving or denying the man's request.

"As for your second question. The simple fact is that there is no evidence of a long magical lineage making one stronger. In fact, it is the opposite as Purebloods, in an attempt to keep their lines as 'clean' as possible, have interbred for generations. The only advantage they have over mundane-borns are their family magics and increased familiarity with the magical world."

"Hmm, a lack of magic circuits would make a crest impossible to make I guess. Also inbreeding? Really? Not even the most blue-blooded of magi families did something that dumb."

Again Dumbledore filed Harry's words away for later contemplating and, hopefully, questioning.

"Indeed, the majority still refuse to believe the evidence even to this day in fact. Now as for your last question I do have my doubts. As far as I know there is no way to accidentally create a soul fragment and implant it into another living person, which meant the one that was previously in your scar was intentional. There is no way Voldemort would destroy one of his own soul containers after all. No, I feel it is far more likely that whatever blood based magic your mother performed to protect you resulted in a backlash again him. With a piece of him inside of you said backlash would have easily been able to find a way to bypass and defenses he might have had thus banishing from his own body."

Harry thought about it for a moment before agreeing with the old wizard, it matched up to his knowledge on the topic of souls as well, small though that may be. The two fell into a silence at that point, with Harry finally going over to Sakura and Dumbledore leaning back in his chair to watch him. Harry paid him no mind as he got into bed with Sakura and pulled her onto him such that her head rested on his lap, allowing him to gently stroke her hair as he continued to monitor their surroundings. Dumbledore smiled slightly at the sight, happy that despite everything he had gone through, Harry was still capable of feeling compassion and maybe even love.

It was thirty minutes of comfortable silence later that Sakura finally started to stir from her sleep. Like him she seemed groggy at first, albeit for different reasons, until she stilled for a moment as she recalled her last memory before falling unconscious. Shooting up she almost crashed her head into Harry's jaw as she frantically looked over him, as if insuring he was really there.

"it's alright Sakura. I'm here, I'm fine. We both escaped and we're never going back. We're safe now." Harry told her gently as he pulled her into his arms and softly stroking her back as he did so.

He felt her shivering in his arms for a few moments before his shirt started feeling damp. Internally he winced, hating the fact that she was crying again. Shinji… he was going to learn to wield the Kaleidoscope just so he could go back and castrate the bastard, slowly. Outwardly however he continued to whisper soft assurances to Sakura while giving her as much physical, and emotionally projected, comfort that he could. Harry was grateful that Dumbledore didn't say anything, though he was irritated at him seeing this happen at all. This was private, a display of weakness that Sakura would never want anyone, not even him, to see. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about his presence.

While Dumbledore had seemed kind enough and had told the truth to him, even about his part in the abuse he suffered at the Dursleys, that didn't mean he was a push over. Far from it in fact. Then there was also the issue that the apparent school they were staying in had massively strong Bounded Fields anchored to it. He had no doubt that Dumbledore was in control of all of them and Harry very much doubted he could boot the man out of his own territory even if he tried.

So he did his best to ignore the man until Sakura finally calmed down and seemed ready to pay attention to their surroundings. She still stayed on his arms however, refusing to leave his embrace and the warmth it gave her. Her eyes wandered the room, taking in what she could of the infirmary, until they landed on Dumbledore at which point they widened as she remembered the man.

"You…helped us?" Sakura asked slowly, questionably, as if she couldn't believe that was the truth. Harry didn't blame her either, he was the same.

Dumbledore luckily took the doubt in stride. He was a long lived and experienced man. He well knew that kind of trauma a life of abuse, especially the kind she had so recently suffered, could do to a person's mindset. Especially after his blunder with Tom.

"Indeed. My name is Albus Dumbledore young lady, the headmaster and a teacher of the fine school in which this infirmary is located. I've been talking a little with young Harry while you've been sleeping, the lad seems quite taken with you."

Sakura blushed ever so slightly while Harry had no reaction. It was the truth and he had no trouble admitting it.

"He seems like an ok person Sakura. I wouldn't say I trust him but at least he doesn't feel like that old monster or a typical magus. He's even offered to aid us in removing the worms."

Harry explained to her, trying to make her feel a bit more at ease with their current situation. It worked, slightly, likely wondering what that aid would cost them which was something Harry wondered as well. Somehow Dumbledore picked up on those thoughts.

"I expect nothing in return for the medical aid Harry. It's the very least I could do for you considering what I've played party to. Or, if you're uncomfortable with that, your family does have a rather sizeable fortune which is more than enough to pay for the treatment."

Harry relaxed at that, trusting the man just a bit more by his offering of a different option than relying on his word and good will. There was something he was curious about however.

"Family fortune huh…can you tell me about that at all? Or what the currency is and what is valued in your society."

Dumbledore noticed the fact that he said 'your' not 'our' society and internally frowned. There was nothing he could do about that though, Harry had never lived in said society before after all so such a mindset was to be expected.

"Certainly. The Potters are a magical family with a very long lineage, dating back to the Romans I believe. Generally, your family has either been aligned with the Light or light leaning neutral faction, often being on the frontlines of any conflict against the Dark. Such conflicts usually ate up quite a bit of money though thanks to smart investing and, some claim, raids on Dark families they have never had to worry about not being wealthy. The recent conflict took more of that fortune than usual however and it's only recently that its recovered to pre-war levels. Both myself and the Potter account manager at Gringotts, which is the name of the magical world's bank, have been carefully investing the money since your parents become disabled. Said investments have pulled in a decent amount of profit and I believe the current Potter fortune has something around two million Galleons of liquid cash. I'm not quite certain about the total wealth though I'm afraid."

Harry raised an eyebrow at what he had just heard, while Sakura looked up at him in shock when Dumbledore mentioned his parents.

"Later." He told her as he caressed her head before turning to Dumbledore. "I'm assuming a Galleon is a unit of currency. Can you explain that now please?"

"Certainly, a Galleon is a gold coin that is roughly equivalent to fifty pounds sterling at the current conversion rate I believe. The other two coins used is the silver Sickle and the bronze Knut. There are twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle and seventeen Sickles to a Galleon. And no, I have no idea why that conversion ratio was decided on. It was something determined many centuries ago and unable to be changed even now due to magically binding contracts."

Harry nearly dropped his jaw at how much money he apparently had access to. Sakura was nearly as bad as her eyes widened to massive size.

"And how does that fortune compare to others in the magical world?"

Dumbledore stroked his beard lightly in thought before replying. "Somewhere around…mid-tier for the old families I think. The richest family at the moment, with an estimated fifty million Galleons in liquid assets, is the Black family thanks to several, shall we say windfalls, though for various reasons no one can claim to that fortune either at the moment. An average middle class wizard works a job with an income of anywhere from one thousand to four thousand Galleons annually for comparison."

Harry's eyebrow twitched. That was quite the wealth disparity there. "I see…"

Dumbledore chuckled. "It's quite a lot to take in, I understand. Though I should mention that I have been the legal executor of your estate and your defacto magical guardian since your parent's were unable to care for you and all their listed alternatives were found unfit or incapable for various reasons. It's based off a magic contract created in your parent's will which is why my status hasn't changed despite my terrible mistake in regards to your upbringing."

Harry's eyes narrowed sharply at the admission. Dumbledore was lucky that he was being so upfront about it all to him otherwise the consequences would have been dire.

"I see…is there…anything else I should be made aware of?"

"Yes quite a lot in fact but unfortunately it seems we'll have to move that conversation to a later date. It seems like Madame Pomfrey was able to get the experts she wanted sooner than she thought."

Harry and Sakura both turned their heads in the direction Dumbledore was looking, just in time to see a rather tall man appear out of a fireplace. It was a rather interesting display of magic and seemed to almost be a form of teleportation, which was so rare and difficult to perform it was almost akin to True Magic for magi. They quickly pushed aside those thoughts in favor of paying attention to the two women that had been walking towards them ahead of the man. One was a rather aged woman in what appeared to be old time matron clothes and blue eyes while the other was a slightly younger woman standing at a short one and a half meters in height. The former looked mad when she spotted them on the bad while the latter just had a sort of professional smile plastered on her face.

"Albus Dumbledore. You will explain why one of my patients got out of his bed and is now residing in the girl's side disturbing my other patient's rest." The woman ordered threateningly.

Dumbledore raised his hands slightly. "Now, now Poppy. Young Harry woke up after getting hit by a rather strong stunner, is it any surprise that he was worried about his companion? I couldn't in good conscious simply force him to remain in his bed when he had no idea who I was or where he was."

That seemed to do little to placate the elderly matron. "So you thought it was ok for him to walk on a leg that I had only just finished healing? And then you thought it was ok for him to disturb another patient while he was at it?"

Both Harry and Sakura frowned at the woman, though it was Sakura who spoke up first. "He's not disturbing me."

The matron turned a gimlet eye towards the young girl about to reprimand her as well until she saw her eyes. Those dark eyes that held unspeakable horrors inside their depths stilled her tongue, her eyes taking in how defensive the both she and Harry were looking as the latter encircled her in his arms. What had they both gone through that they were so protective of each other? Poppy sadly already had the answer to that question however, so she simply sighed and decided against continuing her lecture.

"Fine, it'll be faster to deal with this if you're both together anyways. This-" Pomfrey raised her hand to indicate the short woman next to her, "is Healer Nessus. She's a specialist in magical parasites. And this-" she said pointing towards the man. "Is Doctor Lorez. Doctor Lorez is a mundane surgeon as well as a fully licensed Healer. They're here to get rid of those…things infesting your bodies."

Both healers gave them nods in greeting, both with a professional, yet affable, smile on their faces. Harry and Sakura took all of their measures, looking for any potential threats or bad feelings they gave off. Neither could detect any however and Harry reluctantly introduced both Sakura and himself.

"I'm Harry, this is Sakura." And that was it. He wasn't going to waste more words on strangers that he was still uncertain whether he should trust them or not. Dumbledore only got more because he had been an immediate source of information and had managed to get a small bit of his trust during their conversation.

"Hello Harry, Sakura. As Madam Pomfrey said both myself and Doctor Lorez were called in to help aid in your treatment. I'm certain your eager to get those things out of you so, if you're willing, I'd like to start with some diagnostic spells."

Healer Nessus asked as she held up her wand, carefully pointed away from anyone else so as to appear unthreatening. It didn't do much in that regard however and both Harry and Sakura traded wary glances out of the corner of their eyes, various mysteries readying in their minds in case of an attack.

"…You'll treat me first. Sakura will wait until you're done." There was no way he was going to risk Sakura being exposed to potentially harmful magic first. Plus, this way if they lied about their intentions at least one of them will be able to do something about it or, worst case scenario, Sakura would be able to run.

Healer Nessus simply nodded her head at his request however as did Doctor Lorez. Soon after that they both pointed their wands at him and started casting a variety of spells on him. Harry had to fight the urge to circulate prana in his body so as to boost his magic resistance enough to stop the spells from working. So far they didn't seem to be doing anything harmful, and in fact a couple of the spells felt vaguely similar to Structural Grasp did when he used it on his own body. Still, it was uncomfortable, which was why he was glad when they finally stopped five minutes later.

The two Healers' next move after the diagnostic spells was to line their wands up and simultaneously cast a spell. Harry looked on, honestly quite intrigued by the display, as the two Healers' magic started to form into a multilayer life-size hologram, or illusion, of his body. A couple of seconds after it formed the display started getting marked in red in various places throughout his body. The very same places that he knew he had crest worms at.

Both the Healers looked at the information grimly as they looked at the various information the display was apparently giving them.

"Well there's good news and bad news." Doctor Nessus eventually said about five minutes later.

"The good news is that I'm pretty sure I can get those things out of you." Said Doctor Lorez.

"The bad news however is that these are creatures I have never seen before so I'm uncertain how they'll react to getting removed. Especially the one that is coiled around your heart. I'm worried it'll wake up during removal and cause damage."

"which is why we're going to have to put you under a stasis effect while I perform surgery to get the things out of you. That way, in a worst case scenario, we'll have time to fix any damage they cause during removal." Doctor Lorez finished for Healer Nessus.

Harry frowned at that, everybody remaining quite so as to let him digest the information peacefully. Eventually he asked the pair of Healers a couple of questions, questions that he needed to know the answer to. "Firstly, can you tell me how long the operation will take and secondly, can you tell me what you mean by stasis effect."

"Certainly. It's quite difficult to determine the exact amount of time needed but, thanks to healing magic and knowing where they are all located, it shouldn't take me more than two hours to remove them all. And a stasis effect is a magical phenomenon, usually caused by a spell or potion, to render your body completely inert. An easy way to picture it is that your body will be frozen in time while the rest of the world continues on as normal."

"Does that mean I'll be unconscious during the operation?" Harry asked, not quite liking that possibility.

"Technically. You'll still be conscious but to you it'll seem like one moment you get frozen and the next unfrozen, the surgery already completed." Doctor Lorez explained.

Harry felt Sakura slip her hand into his and squeeze it tightly, worried about what she'd just heard no doubt. He was in no way comfortable with leaving himself that vulnerable, and Sakura without protection, for so long. But…did they really have a choice?

"Is there any way I can remain conscious through the procedure."

Doctor Lorez frowned. "No I'm afraid not. While I could maybe do the surgery with you conscious the risk to your life in the case of a mistake would be extremely high, something I can't do as it would violate my Healer's Oath since there's a safer alternative. And I'm afraid that there is no known stasis effect that leaves the one affected by it conscious of their surroundings."

Harry fell silent at that, heavily weighing his options. It was only Sakura tugging on his hand that managed to pull him out of his thoughts.

"I'll protect you this time." That was all she said but Harry saw the determination in her eyes as she said it. It felt…wrong to him if he was being honest but he trusted Sakura with his life. What was the difference between that and trusting her to protect him? In the end there wasn't much of one and he gave in.

"Alright."

The two Healers nodded at his decision with smiles on their faces, before they quickly shooed Dumbledore out of the infirmary. They tried to do the same to Sakura but neither she nor Harry let them and eventually they gave up on trying. Madam Pomfrey also stayed behind to assist them in their task, ready to provide medical assistance or support them with her magic reserve as needed. A quick chug of an absolutely vile tasted liquid (semi-solid?) that they called a potion later and one moment Harry was looking at Sakura and the next his body felt extremely sore while Sakura had moved to now be sitting behind him, with his head on her lap.

"We managed to remove all of the parasites Harry, you're totally clean. It was a bit dicey with the one that was around your heart like it thought It'd be but thankfully the stasis effect did its job correctly and I was able to repair the damage. With your permission we would like to use the data we gained, along with sample of the parasites, for medical research. Are you fine with that?" Doctor Lorez asked.

Harry frowned, his face slowly growing dark as he processed the request. "No. No one studies them. Destroy them all."

Doctor Lorez raised an eyebrow at the venom in his voice but simply nodded his head. Healer Nessus however had a different reaction, though considering her specialty that made sense.

"Can you please reconsider? I know you don't like them but studying them could help us in case anyone else got infected by the same creatures. We won't always be lucky like with you two and find them hibernating."

Harry's face grew darker. "No. No one studies them. You don't have to worry about anyone else coming into contact with them so long as your burn the ones you take from us."

Healer Nessus frowned in disappointment but didn't push the issue, despite clearly wanting to. Harry's face gradually lightened up in response to her aquiesence.

"Ahem. Then, if you're ready. We would like to start with your treatment Sakura." Doctor Lorez spoke up to avoid any more awkwardness and so as to treat Sakura as soon as possible.

Sakura looked at Harry worryingly and he responded by tightly grasping her hand, projecting feelings of comfort and safety to her at the same time. She relaxed ever so slightly at that before she timidly nodded her had at Doctor Lorez. Like with Harry, after they performed their scans, they had her drink a potion and he soon found out what it looked like from the other side. He had to remind himself repeatedly that she was still alive so as to keep from trying to kill the Healers. It looked wrong how still she was. No one should be that still.

Thankfully, for the healers, he did manage to control himself and he watched as they used magic to vanish Sakura's clothes on her leg. Why they started there instead of somewhere he didn't know but it was as fascinating as it was disgusting, and terrifying, to watch. They somehow managed to shape magic into either a laser or some kind of disintegration based mystery, which they proceeded to use to removed varying layers of Sakura's body to remove the worms that hid beneath them. None of the new openings were very big as only the smallest, and weakest, Crest Worms lived in the extremities but there were a lot of them.

It was only after they purged Sakura's limbs and move onto her torso that they found the larger worms. That's when the incisions got bigger, and Harry again had to force himself from murdering the Healers as he saw Sakura's rib bones and some of her organs through many of the openings. Harry throught the worst one was the truly massive worm that was in lower half. Massive flames made of pure hated and righteous fury welled up inside of him at the sight of it. He had always known of its existence mentally but seeing it was something else. Even the Healer's, despite their impeccable poker faces and steady hands, radiated anger as they removed it from her body.

Then came the final portion, removing the worm around Sakura's heart. This time the opening they made looked more like a gaping hole rather than an incision. It was necessary however as the Crest Worm circling her heart was almost as large as the one removed from her lower half. Harry's heart stopped when, during the extraction, the worm woke up and managed to lash out before it was pulled out, severing one of the larger arteries connected to Sakura's heart in the progress. It was only the visual proof of there not being any bleeding, and the Healers quickly, and seamlessly, healing the artery back to a pristine state that kept him from having a panic, or murder, attack.

By the time Sakura was fully clothed in her hospital gown once more all three Healers were covered in sweat and looked exceedingly pale. Harry figured it was likely similar to when a Magus overused their circuits causing their bodies to overheat. He didn't pay them any more attention after that however as he was too busy doing the same thing Sakura had done for him. Gently, he rested her head on his lap as he softly stroked her hair while Healer Nessus administered the nullifying potion to remove the stasis effect. Sakura woke up thirty seconds later, her dull purple eyes staring into Harry's heterochromic ones for a few moments before they smiled, truly smiled at each other. They had done it. They were finally and completely free.

 **AN: And that was Chapter 4 that some of you have waited a long, long time for. To be honest I had actually forgotten where I placed my stuff for this story until about two days ago. If yall didn't read the top note I updated the earlier chapters so they not only have fewer mistakes but flow better as well. I'm thinking first year of Hogwarts will start in another chapter or two but who knows.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Ren here. I know, I know. Another chapter so soon? Gasp! I thought It'd take a year again. Well good news, it didn't and I present to you, Chapter 5. Also, remember this is a fanfiction and if something is not exactly how it was in canon it was done deliberately and I did state in the first chapter this would be heavy AU Harry Potter world.**

 **Pairing info at the end of the chapter.**

Not long after their surgeries had been completed and the specialist Healers had left the infirmary, Harry and Sakura were finally going to be provided something to eat. Neither had mentioned any feelings of hunger to either Dumbledore or Madam Pomfrey but they only had to think about it logically to find out that they were. They had both been asleep for a while and just had invasive surgery performed on them after all.

"Chuffy. Would you mind attending me please?" Dumbledore seemingly asked to thin air.

Before Harry could even raise an eyebrow at the man's (lack) of sanity he found out why that was. A strange creature possessing massive eyes and large floppy ears that only stood about even with Sakura used teleportation, actual teleportation, to appear where Dumbledore was looking.

"Master Dumblydoor askeded for Chuffy?" The creature asked, its voice sounding squeaky and childish as it spoke in butchered English.

Dumbledore smiled gently at the creature as he replied. "Yes. Would you and the other House Elves mind making a nutritious meal for our two young friends here? Nothing too heavy please, they just got finished getting healed and Madam Pomfrey would have my head if they ended up feeling sick or queasy."

The little creature called Chuffy gave a rather comical solute to Dumbledore. "Yes sir, Headmaster Whiskers sir. Chuffy being doings so now."

And as suddenly it had appeared the creature was gone leaving both Harry and Sakura looking rather befuddled. Dumbledore, upon noticing the looks, had his eyes twinkle in amusement. It was always a joy introducing children to the more whimsical side of magic. His personal favorite are the reactions the first years always had to the Sorting Hat. Godfrey was quite the jokester, even if he did make sure to hide actual wisdom in his deliberately awful songs. Still, it wasn't a very kind thing to leave them without answers, especially if he wanted to continue to build a rapport with the two children.

"That was Chuffy, one of the many House Elves that work the more menial jobs here at Hogwarts. As I doubt you know what a House Elf is, I'll give you a brief summary but if you want anything more I'd rather have you find the information yourselves. A good teacher never just hands over a complete answer to their students, it rarely ever teaches them to cultivate their own minds and have their own creative thoughts I find."

The two children looked at him after he finished speaking, looking a bit confused by his words though they also seemed to agree with his last line.

 _Did they manage to cultivate their magical skills all by themselves?_ Dumbledore couldn't but wonder. _If so, that is a most impressive, and terrifying, feat. Learning magic without any guidance at all is a good way to seriously harm or kill ones' self after all._

Despite wanting to ask them about their learning experience so as to answer the many, many questions in his mind he held himself back. Today was the first they'd ever truly met each other and it wasn't in the best of circumstances for the young children. There would be a time in the future, once they had stabled themselves and overcame the mental scars they had developed, that such would be possible. Until then he'd do most of the talking.

"Right then how should I start?" Dumbledore mused as he stroked his beard.

Harry spoke up before he could find his answer however. "Can you explain what...Chuffy was it?" Seeing Dumbledore's pleased smile at using the House Elf's name Harry proceeded to continue his question. "Can you explain what Chuffy just did? Was that teleportation? Do you know how it works? Is it common in your society? The Healers used some kind of fireplace to arrive here as well was that also teleportation?"

While Dumbledore mentally raised an eyebrow at the barrage of questions he had been hit with, he outwardly retained his same affable expression as he answered them one by one.

"In order. It's called popping generally. Yes. No, no one quite knows how House Elf teleportation works though the current leading theory is that they phase themselves into another dimension as part of the process. Teleportation is fairly common in magical society, with most adults being able to use a personal version of it called apparating and with everyone capable of using two others called Portkeys and Flooing. And yes, that was Flooing which is a form of travel that uses a network of connected fireplaces and a specific alchemical mixture to enable travel between them."

Harry seemed fascinated by his words and even Sakura looked curious, even if she was mainly paying attention to Harry and the way he was stroking her hair.

"That's...impressive."

Dumbledore chuckled in amusement. "Trust me Harry, if you stay in the magical world long enough, you'll see more wonders than you can count. Teleportation is not very impressive compared to some of the things we are able to create and do."

Seeing Harry about to speak again Dumbledore raised a hand in a gesture for him to hold it in, which he reluctantly did.

"If you wish we can continue our discussion at another time but we are getting a bit off topic."

Harry stared at him for a few moments before sighed. "Fine."

The aged Headmaster smiled at him gently. "Thank you, Harry. Now, I was going to explain House Elves to you. I guess the first place to start is by telling you about their origin. Tell me, have you ever heard of Brownies before?"

Harry scrunched up his brow, accidently stopping his hand's movements as he tried to recall where he had the word before, much to Sakura's disappointment. Thankfully it didn't take him too long to remember and he was back at it once more.

"They are...creatures that supposedly perform chores in the middle of the night I believe. From...British folklore I want to say."

Dumbledore beamed at him, he always loved the bright and well-read students.

"You are correct. Now, a long time ago a rather prominent Alchemist took to studying the creatures in the hope of creating the perfect servant race. One that would not only take care of his mundane needs and chores but be able to assist him magically as well. Through his studies he studied a variety of magical species until he eventually came upon the Brownie. They were almost perfect for his goals, the only problem being they were purely nocturnal and could not perform magic beyond possessing the ability to remain unseen.

Still that challenge posed less of a challenge to the Alchemist than finding a suitable species for his experiments and, after a few years of research and testing, he created the first ever Homunculus using Brownies as his main ingredient, as horrid as that sounds. Naturally he was quite pleased with his endeavors and quickly created a small army of the perfect servants for himself. The problem was that his actions and ruthless hunting of the Brownies, effectively endangering the species, angered the other Fae species. If you know anything of Gaelic legends, you know just how bad a thing that was.

As retribution for his actions all the Homunculi he had created were infused with Fae magic and transformed into what could only be called a living plague. The newly transformed creatures quickly tore the Alchemist and his home apart, including the majority of his research, before spreading across the lands devouring all they saw. They weren't much of a threat to magicals at the time but for the mundane their losses were terrible. They were so terrible in fact that the magicals at the time were eventually forced to deal with them permanently lest they all got completely wiped out. The only problem was that the Fae had given the creatures the ability to rapidly reproduce such that the initial one hundred had turned into over ten thousand in just under a week and a hundred thousand in two.

While the magical's attacks against the creatures resulted in few losses in every engagement for their side, the amount of damage they did to the creature's population was negligible and it continued to grow. For about two months this continued to play out until eventually, a Coven managed to create a solution. Using the small amount of recovered research notes and slave binding techniques from the African tribal shamans the Coven was able to create a ritual to bind the creatures into servitude. Obviously, the ritual worked though as a consequence of the ritual the House Elves were permanently bound to wizarding kind, such that a House Elf not having a Master resulted in them slowly losing their sanity and dying. And such has been the case until this day, resulting in the House Elves as we now know them"

As Dumbledore winded down from his small lecture he couldn't help but think he should have become the History of Magic teacher rather than Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was a tempting thought as he did know a lot on the subject and loved spinning the old tales, but it was also merely an idle one. He couldn't juggle **two** teaching posts on top of being Headmaster at the same time and no one else could overpower the curse on the DADA position other than him. Besides, Professor Malfoy was very good at her job even if he would prefer her not to spend as much time on the darker aspects of their society and history as she was prone to do.

When Dumbledore came back from his thoughts it was to the sight of Harry slowly coaxing Sakura into eating more food, by feeding her by hand. Apparently Chuffy was quite taken with the two if he preferred that lavish a meal for them. There wasn't a single dish on that platter that had ever made its way on to the feast tables before, at least to his knowledge.

It was a rather cute sight watching Harry feed Sakura, endearing even, but it was marred by the fact that the young girl nearly needed to be force fed in order to eat anything after the two small bites of an apple she had taken. it took even Harry nearly minute of coaxing just to get her to take another bite, and that pained Dumbledore's heart. He'd need to broach the topic of having her see a Mind Healer to Harry as soon as possible. He doubted he'd get anywhere by asking Sakura directly as only Harry had that kind of sway over her. Also, with the boy's protective streak, he had his doubts at being able to get her to a Mind Healer without his permission anyways. Still, now was not the time.

Dumbledore continued to wait patiently as the two children ate their meal, bite by small bite in the case of Sakura, and not at all for Harry. The young boy waited until after he was done feeding Sakura to begin on his own food. Sakura seemed like she wanted to feed him as well but was apparently too shy if he had to guess. Harry finished his food much quicker than Sakura did however and once he was done Dumbledore finally spoke again.

"I trust you found the food edible?"

Harry shrugged. "Yes, though I'm not used to Western food anymore so it was a bit weird tasting it again."

Dumbledore filed that piece of information along with everything else he had noted about Harry for latter review.

"I see. Well I'm certain if you ask the House Elves in the kitchen they would be happy to cook whatever food you want, assuming you either have a cookbook or are willing to teach them how."

Harry narrowed his eyes slightly. "You act as though we'll be staying here."

"Yes, it was my intent to have you do that. Madam Pomfrey would like you to stay in the infirmary for another day in order to make sure there were no complications. I'd also thought you'd like to stay here until we can visit the bank and find you a place to stay if that's what you desired."

If Harry was being honest, he thought it was almost irritating that the aged headmaster continued to be so accommodating and understanding. It rubbed him the wrong way that the man always seemed to be thinking one step ahead of him and made sure to cut off any potential problems before they could form. It was only almost however as he really did appreciate the lengths he was going to.

Trading a brief look with Sakura, who simply gave him a look letting him know she'd follow his lead, Harry reluctantly acquiesced. "That's…acceptable. Though I'd like to know what my options for living are. Am I right in assuming that the magical government is the same as the normal one in that kids are not allowed to live by themselves?"

Dumbledore nodded genially. "You'd be correct. However, I am also your acting guardian and thus have quite a bit of leeway on what your accommodations are. So long as I have access to whatever property or location you settle in I'm willing to let you live where you please. And that stipulation is merely to make sure we're in compliance of the law."

 _Well, it could be worse._ Harry thought as he stared searchingly at the old wizard. _At the very least he has the integrity to be up front about everything from the get go. The fact that he is also treating me as an equal and letting me make my own choices is another plus… I still need to know what his role was in my living with the Dursleys, in detail, but…_

"Thank you." Harry stated simply, causing Dumbledore to smile at him in response.

"Think nothing of it my boy. I'll be honest and state that I feel like I don't have the right to dictate your life, and especially where you live, anymore."

"Yes…we'll need to discuss that at some point. But for now can you tell me what my options in regards to housing are?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Certainly. With your family's assets I'm certain you can afford whatever you desire. Sadly, none of the properties your family used to have remain intact anymore so you can't live there. As for where you can find hosing, there are plenty of flats in the city Hogsmeade and even some houses, available for purchase. It's a purely magical city that resides on the school's extensive grounds, the largest one in the world in fact. Or if that isn't to your liking you can find a place to live in other magical conclaves. I can even take you to a mundane realtor if you prefer to live in the mundane side of things."

Harry looked at Dumbledore strangely for a moment. "City of Hogsmeade? That's a…strange name. Speaking of you never did mention the name of the school we are apparently in. It's not something like BoreAle High right?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement at his comment. "No, though that is a rather amusing guess. The school we are in is called Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, though most simply call it Hogwarts."

Harry, and even Sakura, just looked at him oddly, much to his increased amusement.

"Yes, I think the name is interesting as well. It's quite endearing however once you get used to it. Also, don't let the silly name fool you. Hogwarts is the number one school of magic in the world, as certified by the International Confederation of Wizards', which is essentially the magical equivalent of the mundane United Nations, educational review board."

Admittedly Dumbledore was dangling bait in front of Harry with that piece of information. He desperately hoped that he would attend Hogwart's like his parents had before him. Partially it was to help prepare him for his destiny while partially it was so he could better ensure his safety. He didn't want Harry to suffer again from something he had the power to prevent and if he was close that was less likely to happen.

While Harry didn't bite the metaphorical bait right away Dumbledore could see he gotten his attention, his next words especially showed that to be the case.

"That's impressive. How many countries are there in this confederation, and how many magical schools are there? And what's the age rage for magical learning in your society?"

"The confederation has eighty magical countries as members, which constitutes of all existing countries as well. As for schools, there are technically two answers though I only know one of them. Each country has more than one magical school as, even though our population is nowhere near that of our mundane counterparts, it's too sizable to only have a single school per country. That being said there are schools that stand as locations where the best in each country go to school. Though admittedly Hogwarts has fairly lax requirements for entry seeing as how we take in all mundane-born magicals that wish to attend. Anyways, there are a total of forty-nine top tier magical schools spread out across the world, of which three are technically city states, Hogwarts among them."

That certainly got Harry's attention. How did a school, even a magical one, become a city-state? More to the point, why? Still, number one out of forty-nine wasn't bad, especially as there were likely somwhere in the realm of hundreds of minor schools underneath them. It was something to think about at least.

"You didn't mention what ages you taught." Harry pointed out.

Dumbledore nodded his head. "You're right, forgive an old man for his forgetfulness. Magical schooling starts at eleven years old and ends after either five or seven years of study. There are also masteries after general education, which is the equivalent of graduate school I believe it's called in mundane terms. Some children do learn how to perform magic earlier however, and there are a few pre-schools set up in Hogsmeade as of about five years ago for children aged from five to ten. Before those existed parents simply taught at home, which still remains the most common practice amongst the pureblood and noble families in fact."

Harry could see why homeschooling would be common in a magic society, even if wizards and witches seemed quite a bit different from Magi in their practices.

"Are there any mandatory education laws?"

"Yes. Magical school is required to be attended for five years at a minimum. If a child does not attend school their magic will be bound to prevent it from become a threat to both harming and others, as well to prevent the child from accidently leaking the secret of magic to the mundanes."

Harry stilled as the implication that these wizards could somehow prevent people from performing magic hit him. It was…unsettling. Though he did note that Dumbledore had said becoming a threat to themselves and others as one of the reasons. Did that mean Magic Cores were inherently volatile? Or was it the opposite and it was just so easy to tap into it that they didn't want an angry child accidently killing someone during a tantrum. Both were equally as unsettling as the ability to bind magic, especially considering he possessed a Magic Core as well...

Harry narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore. "I take that…I fall under these same laws by virtue of my…parentage?"

Dumbledore easily confirmed his suspicion. "You are correct. As a matter of fact, you were listed for enrollment at Hogwarts from the day you were born by your parents. Though if you wish to seek education at a different institution, I can provide you with pamphlets. Sadly, however I can't help you be immune from the law. The Ministry of Magic, which is the government of magical Britain, likely knows you are alive now thanks to the wizards you and young Sakura encountered last night, or through a variety other means if they don't report what happened. Sadly, no matter what they will hunt you down if you don't attend, if only for purely selfish reasons. I'm afraid the government is quite corrupt and obsessed with its image you see. The other countries have the same law, before you ask so they won't take your side or harbor you if you run.."

Harry's faced warped in anger and his arms tightened protectively around Sakura in response to Dumbledore's words.

"And when." Harry spat. "Where you going to tell me this piece of information."

Dumbledore seemed unperturbed by Harry's anger and answered him calmly. "As soon as you asked or tomorrow at the latest. I didn't want to inhibit your recovery by causing you to worry unnecessarily if I could help it."

"Unnecessarily?" Harry growled out.

Dumbledore nodded. "Indeed. You still have several months before your next birthday, and a couple more after that until you need to make a decision on the issue. Even if I can't change the law or fight against it, Hogwart's semi-independence do0esn't mean our laws are different, there are ways to bend the rules if you so desired. After all the law only states you have to attend a school for five years. It doesn't say anything about having to study there."

"Yet we'd still be forced to attend a school even if we don't want to. Even if we bend the rules as you say, we would still essentially be forced to live here or at another school. Prisoners to put it bluntly." Harry's eyes flashed dangerously after he finished his last remark.

Dumbledore noticed this, as well as the increase in Harry's magic output, as he stared at the young boy. This was a delicate topic, one that he knew would be extremely difficult to broach at the best of times, which was why he had wanted to wait one more day if at all possible. It would have been a compromise between giving Harry time to settle and providing him important information as soon as possible. Still, he believed he had a way to calm Harry down long enough to discuss the issue thoroughly even though it came up sooner than expected.

"Only you fall under the law Harry. Young Sakura won't fall into that category unless either she or you decide you desire such a thing. I am also willing to fight, physically if necessary, to make sure that no one tries to enforce the rule on her against her wishes."

Harry noticeably calmed down at those words, as did Sakura, though he was still clearly angry.

"While I…appreciate the sentiment, I don't trust you enough to simply take your word for that."

"I realize that. Though there isn't really anything I can do to prove to you my words are the truth. You could always let her live in the mundane world while you attend school. Her…magic circuits I believe you called them, don't register like anything wizarding kind has encountered before. She won't be detected through magical means as being a witch, or even being able to perform magic, so no one would even know to look for her let alone find her."

"So you say but…"

"Again I have no way to prove to you my words are the truth. Even if I perform the spells for such means of detection you don't possess enough knowledge yet to determine if they are the right spells or what the results they give mean."

 _And that's the problem with everything really, isn't it?_ Harry thought in annoyance. _I'm basing everything I know about this society on Dumbledore's words at the moment. It feels like he's been telling nothing but the truth but I can't simply take his word in that regard however. This is too big of an issue to believe in his good will. Nobody does anything for us without there being strings attached._

"When did you say we were going to the bank?" Harry eventually asked after several long moments of tense silence.

"We can go tomorrow if you wish. I'd say today but again Madam Pomfrey has ordered that you remain in the infirmary for observation until then." Dumbledore readily replied.

Harry wanted to simply ignore that order but didn't want to risk losing any good will until he knew for sure that they were hostile or a threat. Because if they weren't, he would owe them for freeing Sakura from the worms and he'd rather they not abuse that fact because he was too stubborn. So he'd stay another day in the infirmary, but that was it.

"Fine. Tomorrow morning we are going to the bank and after that I'm going to go looking for information about everything you've told me on my own."

Dumbledore instantly agreed. "That is perfectly acceptable. There are several shops in Diagon Alley, where Gringotts is located, that will help you in that regard. Or we can look in Hogsmeade. The population is mostly made up of mundane-borns, half-bloods, which are basically half pureblood half mundane-born, and their family. A lot of the book shops there have information that someone new to our society would need to know."

"…Thank you." Harry eventually forced out. Trust issues or not, his role in the abuse he suffered or not, the man deserved a simple thank you for what he did so far, what he was still doing in fact.

Dumbledore stared at him for several moments before finally responding. "You are welcome. Now, unless you have any burning questions you want answered I'll be making my exit. I'm sure you two want some time to yourselves. I'll be back after dinner to check in with you if you wish to ask me further questions then."

"Please do. There are several things I'd still like to ask you." Harry said evenly.

Dumbledore didn't wince, or shrink away from what Harry implied he'd be asking. Instead he simply gave a tilt of his head in acknowledgement and retained a calm demeanor. "I'll give you as complete an explanation to anything you might ask as is possible. No matter how uncomfortable the topic may be to myself personally."

The two males stared at each other for another few moments as one projected sincerity and the other looked for any hints of deception or misdirection. Silently they came to an accord and, with another tilt of his head, Dumbledore left the infirmary, leaving Harry and Sakura completely alone.

The two didn't start talking right away, instead opting to maintain the silence as they drew physical comfort from one another. They both needed to simply…process everything that had happened to them in such a short amount of time. As mentally resilient and overly-mature for their ages as they were, they were still only ten-year-olds that had experienced a lifetime of horrors. The sudden void of the pain and suffering they had so long been accustomed to was almost jarring almost wrong even. They both felt too light for lack of a better description, in both mind and body. So they needed to let themselves adjust as best they could while using the other as their support pillar they needed to lean on until that happened. So they sat quietly, one nuzzled into the other, for almost an hour before the silence was finally broken by Harry.

"I promised you an explanation as well. I'll tell you anything you want to know." Harry told Sakura softly.

Sakura looked up at him, showing that her purple eyes that had always been so dull now had the faintest flicker of life within their dark depths,, before resting her head against his chest again. "…He mentioned your parents."

That was the first thing Sakura asked him, though Harry wasn't totally surprised. He had never talked about his parents before and had, in fact, implied that the Dursley's were his parents. He didn't do so to lie to her but simply because it was easier for him that way.

"…For a long time, I had believed they had simply abandoned me because I was a freak, because I was deficient or maybe because they simply didn't want me. All I knew was that was that I was at the Dursleys because they wouldn't raise me. I knew they were alive, my aunt never forgot to mention that when she brought up how unwanted I was. But…I hated them."

Harry admitted softly, relaxing softly as Sakura hugged him.

"I never mentioned them because to me, they were basically dead. I'm sorry I mislead you but…it was a more painful topic for me than my life at my relatives."

"It's ok, I'm not upset." Sakura whispered as she tightened her grip on him to convey the truth of her words physically.

"Thank you… I guess I might as well explain everything then. First of all, as you no doubt have realized already, this is the reality I was born in and I wasn't a native to your own."

"How? Why?" Sakura asked softly, her voice slightly muffled as she buried her face further into Harry's arms.

Despite the one word questions Harry still know what she was asking. "Are you sure you want to know? Learning the truth might hurt you."

Sakura just gently nodded her head, causing Harry to sigh.

"I…am not really sure I traveled to your dimension if I'm being honest. All I know was that my mind had been blurry due to being starved for a couple weeks and I felt an intense need to come save you. That was the only thought in my mind as something within me snapped. Next thing I knew I was in the basement next to the old worm."

"Why did you need to save me? How did you even know I existed?" Sakura asked, confusion evident in her tone, though Harry also noticed the gratitude, and happiness that accompanied it.

Still, he had to grimace at the questions. "This is the part that might hurt you to know? Are you sure?"

A nod of her head and Harry sighed.

"To put it simply your life and the Forth Grail War were stories I had read about.

Sakura stilled completely in his arms.

"The Fourth Grail War was shown in an anime while there was also a novel version to read if one so desired. I…guess you could say that I saw a lot of my situation mirrored in yours and, when at the end of the war Kariya failed and you were seemingly left to your fate, I decided I couldn't let that happen." Harry explained to her hesitantly.

"I…am fictional?"

Harry quickly denied her. "Of course not. I'm not sure why you would even think that."

"But…I am just a character, someone who doesn't really exist, to your world."

Harry couldn't help but to tilt his head to the side and look at her in utter confusion. "Why does that matter? You've always been real."

Sakura finally looked at him at that, her eyes slightly watery. "You said that you watched me, read about me. To you I had to have been fictional. So why?"

Again Harry couldn't help but be utterly confused. "But you weren't? You've been real since I first learned about your existence. Why wouldn't I want to save you?"

Sakura frowned slightly at that as her eyes bored into his own. Harry, despite knowing that what he had told Sakura could hurt her, wasn't quite sure why she was hung up on that part in particular. Her existence was never in doubt he just thought she'd be hurt by the fact that he knew all about her past, a past she had never shared with him before during his time at the Matous. He decided to add one last bit to his explanation to hopefully settle the issue.

"Just because somethings fictional doesn't mean it isn't real."

It was a paradoxical statement but one that Harry believed in fully. In its own way it did have some logic to it as well. Sakura was here, living and breathing, to act as proof after all.

"You…" Sakura couldn't finish her sentence. She didn't know what to say. Until recently she had always thought Harry was just an incredibly kind person who had been unfortunate enough to be caught by Zouken. But now she had learned that not only did he know exactly what had been happening to her but had willingly, **willingly,** came to her rescue anyways. Admittedly it sounded like he did so accidently but it was his desire to save her that was at least partially responsible for his traveling to her reality. Then, even when he knew exactly the kind of horror the Pit was, he willingly jumped into it without hesitation, simply to provide comfort to her. How was she supposed to react to that?

"Idiot." Sakura whispered as tears starting falling down her eyes. "You shouldn't have done that."

Harry gently wiped away Sakura's tears. "I don't regret my decision and I would make it again in a heartbeat if I had to. Even if you had rejected my help I still would have given it anyways."

Thankfully Sakura didn't cry for very long this time, and her tears were because of her feeling happy rather than sad. Once she had finished however, she had asked him to tell her about the rest of his life, the parts he hadn't explained before since he already knew hers. So he did. It was surprisingly a longer explanation than he thought it be, taking just over thirty minutes to wrap up. He'd thought it'd be less considering how most parts life was similar to other parts of it. Still, she had asked so he had given as in depth an explanation as possible, answering whatever questions she came up with while listening to him.

Even if it had been a bit uncomfortable for him it was well worth it as Sakura seemed to draw comfort from the fact that he truly understood what she was going through right now. It was a method of bonding that both would have rather done without but neither could control time so there wasn't anything they could do about it.

"Harry…when you said that I was part of a story…" Sakura started asking hesitantly after Harry's complete life story was told to her. Before she could finish however Harry butted in.

"I really don't understand why you keep worrying about that. You're as real as me and always have been. Trust me, I'd never outright lie to you." He didn't say he would never lie indirectly however as he had already done so, and likely would do so again, something both of them knew even if it wasn't said aloud. Sometimes the full truth wasn't a good thing to know.

Sakura shook her head. "No, that wasn't what I was going to ask."

Harry looked confused. "Oh, sorry. What was it then?"

"I was wondering if my…story and the Grail War were the only ones that existed. Sometimes books and shows have sequels or are a part of a series after all." Sakura explained.

Harry hummed thoughtfully as he tried to remember the answer. "I…think so. I never really paid attention if there were others besides the one I had found. Why?"

Sakura looked down, her hair covering her eyes in a light darkness. "I wanted to know what happened."

It took a moment for Harry to get what she was asking. "You mean… what would have happened to you if I hadn't entered your life?"

Sakura nodded imperceptibly.

Harry really did not want to let her find out that answer. **He** did not want to find the answer to that particular question. But it was Sakura's choice as it was technically her life being discussed so it wasn't his place to deny her.

"...Ok. We can go find out what there is tomorrow after we get money. I'll make Dumbledore take us to a place with a computer so we can look it up after we finish what we need to do."

"Thank you."

Instead of a verbal response to Sakura's heartfelt thanks Harry just started petting her head once more.

* * *

Dumbledore arrived back in the infirmary an hour after Harry and Sakura had eaten their supper. The two looked notably lighter than he had last seen them, as if a weight was lifted from them. It wasn't a heavy weight and the change was minuscule, so much so that he only noticed due to his vast experience, but it was there none the less. Idly he noted that it didn't look like the two children had moved from their spot at all. They seemingly hadn't even changed their positions either for that matter.

"Good evening Harry, Sakura. I trust your food was edible once more." Dumbledore asked as he proceeded to sit in a chair near the bed the two were occupying.

Again it was Harry who answered him, and Dumbledore wondered if Sakura would ever speak to someone other than Harry when it wasn't important, like with the surgery.

"Dumbledore. Yes." There was no addition added to his name nor did his words leave him room to have a conversation but Dumbledore didn't feel slighted. He didn't particularly care about his titles nor was he vain so that didn't matter to him. As for how he had responded, again it was to be expected. It didn't hurt that Harry at least had the courtesy to not use his first name however. Though that could be a result of him living in the East where that mode of addressing someone was more common than the west.

"I'm glad. Now, I promised to answer your questions after supper and here I am. Ask what you wish Harry. I'll answer to the best of my ability and as truthfully as I can."

Harry immediately asked his first question. "What mistake did you make that led to my life with the Dursleys, and why did you not do anything to help me for that matter if you were supposed to be my guardian? There's also the fact that people seemed to get hypnotized, or something similar, when I told them anything or tried to run away. Myself included. Is that related somehow?

Dumbledore looked surprised, and vaguely interested, at that but this was Harry's answer session not his.

"I believe that might be the case. Unfortunately, however I am unsure, the wards and protections I placed on you and the surroundings were gone before I could study how they had changed from its original design. A side effect of your method of escape I would assume."

Harry didn't look impressed. "How do you put in place protections that do the opposite of what you wanted?

Dumbledore sighed heavily. "I can only speculate as to the reason. I put a lot of protective magic on you when I left you, a lot of complicated and powerful magic at that. The neighborhood was likewise protected, though obviously on a much larger scale. You already know that spells cost magic to perform and so, as you can likely guess, do wards and protection spells. The only difference is that they need a continuous supply of magic in order to remain in effect. There was no Lay-line nearby and the ambient magic in the area was far from enough, which left only one option, you."

Harry looked skeptical of that. "I'm fairly certain that if the protections had been tied to me they wouldn't have helped make my life miserable."

Dumbledore nodded. "True but you forget that you had another passenger in your body. I had thought it was dormant at the time but it is possible that it was not. If that was indeed the case than it would have enough sway over the protections that it could manipulate and change them thanks to its link to you. In this case it could have essentially inverted most of the protections, amongst which was an incredibly strong information securing spell called the Fidelis, to break you enough to take over your body. The Fidelis can be used to remove the information about the existence of the building it is cast on, which in your case was your relative's home, and anything relating to it, just so you can have proper context.

I believe that it's likely that, after I cast the Fidelis, either the soul fragment managed to become the secret keeper, the only person who can inform others of the hidden object's existence, or it managed to slowly corrupt the spell over time, twisting it to its own purpose. Either way the end result was that I completely forgot anything related to Privet drive, including you and the tools I had created to monitor your health and the information from the wards.

There is no way of knowing if that's the truth however, as it is possible I simply made a mistake while casting that led to everything going wrong. This previous explanation just the reason I found most believable, even though I acknowledge that part of that is because I don't want to believe I could have made so bad a mistake."

Dumbledore's words felt logical to Harry and he had yet to have a reason to not take his word so far. He also couldn't find any benefit for the man to make his life like that, unless he was a really well-hidden sociopath. So, reluctantly, he acknowledged that Dumbledore wasn't entirely at fault for what happened.

"I…can believe that but…I can't forgive you yet even if wasn't your fault. Maybe someday but...likely not soon."

Dumbledore sighed heavily but nodded in acceptance none the less. "I understand and once again I can only offer my apologies."

Harry waved away the apology as he asked his next question. "Right. So that was the most important thing That I wanted to find out from you. While I have a lot of question that I want to ask or find an answer to, there is only one I find important to know in the short term."

"Feel free to ask."

"What is magic to your society. Like how is it treated and how does it work."

"hmmm. That is usually a question only older students ask but I will tell you what I know. What magic means to our society and how it is treated. I think the best descriptor would be tool. Magic is something used in all parts of life for most wizards and witches, as well as being an aid for many jobs. Children usually see the beauty and wonder of magic but that fades away as they grow older, until it simply becomes normal and boring.

How it works on the other hand is a much trickier thing to answer, mainly because nobody knows for sure. It is known that in order for humans to perform magic, at least in this dimension, they need a magical core. Said core is a mix between a physical and spiritual container of magic, a reserve that is filled from both the environment and from a magical's own life force. That is why your three healers looked so exhausted once they were finished. Magic power is life force for us and if our reserves hit zero it is highly likely that we'll die."

Harry nodded. "Make's sense, Magic Circuits are fairly similar in that regard. Though usually death doesn't occur if your Od reserves run out, your body just produces more.

Dumbledore looked intrigued. "How fascinating. I really do want to have a conversation with you about magic some point."

Harry hesitated a moment before slowly nodding his head. "If I find all the information you've provided us was correct then I wouldn't mind having that conversation once we got ourselves settled."

Dumbledore positively beamed at him. "I look forward to our future conversation then Harry. Now, if you have no more questions I'd like to get to bed. I'm an old man and I need my sleep if I'm to wake up early for our trip to Gringotts."

Harry shook his head while Sakura remained as quiet as ever. "Nothing too pressing and we'd like to sleep as well."

"Then I bid you goodnight. I'll inform Poppy not to force you two to use separate beds. I have a feeling we'll get nowhere in trying."

Both children nodded emphatically. "You'd be correct."

Dumbledore chuckled lightly. "So, I figured. There are monitoring spells on the infirmary that will inform Poppy if you need medical assistance during the night, simply ask for help or something similar and they will activate."

While annoyed at the partial invasion of privacy Harry didn't bother expressing it. Such a feature made sense, and they likely had one that could actively monitor them as well. Though whether Dumbledore didn't mention it because it was turned off for them or because he wanted to keep it a secret, he was unsure. there was nothing could do about it either way, you don't mess with another person's bounded fields without their explicit permission. Doing otherwise was not only bad manners but a good way to get yourself killed and have your corpse dissected for research material.

The two children spent an hour simply relaxing in each other's presence before they finally decided to sleep. Unfortunately, Sakura didn't sleep well that night, her dreams plagued by nightmares and memories that caused her to wake up shaking more than once. Harry seemed to always know when that happened however as he was awake and waiting for her when it happened, much to her relief. On Harry's part his dreams were normal this time, no strange forest or balls of elements wandering around, for which he was grateful. He still hadn't had time to really ponder whatever the dream had been and he wanted to at least sort out his thoughts about it before experiencing it again.

Despite the frequent wake ups throughout the night the two had that night they still ended up being fairly well rested when morning came. They quickly found out that apparently the House Elves had been watching them as, no more than five minutes after they woke up, did two plates of breakfast food appear out of nowhere. It was kind of creepy, especially since neither of them had noticed an elf teleport nor had they detected any monitoring magic in the area. Still, at least there was food. Harry had to coax Sakura into eating more food again however but in the end both plates were cleared of all food.

Again they apparently were being monitored as not five minutes after **that** happened did Dumbledore show back up in the infirmary. Unless of course it was just an extreme coincidence but Harry doubted that.

"Ah Harry, Sakura. How are both of you feeling this morning? Breakfast was to your tastes I hope?" The aged Headmaster asked jovially.

"We're fine." Harry stated simply, not bothering to comment about the breakfast as it was edible, not poisoned and filling, just like yesterday which made it redundant to say it out loud again.

Dumbledore didn't seem to mind however. "Good. Now, I'm assuming you wish to go the bank right away so which would you prefer. Using the Floo or getting side-along apparated by me?"

The two kids shared a look. "Is there a difference?"

"Yes. Most people feel like using the Floo has less side effects than being apparated. Of course those side effects are merely feeling a bit nauseous the first few times. So long as one is proficient in the ability and doesn't rush then there are no dangers either."

That didn't sound very appealing. "And is there any change in the speed of our arrival between the two?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No. The only difference is where we will be arriving. The Floo will take us to an inn cum bar that acts as the divider between magical and mundane London. Apparation will take us directly into the alley at a pre-arranged spot near the ministry."

"Floo then, I'd rather not take any chances with apparition since you implied there are dangers to it, though likely not ones you would face. Any risk is to much to risk Sakura's safety" Harry stated firmly, causing Sakura to blush slightly again as she squeezed Harry's hand tightly.

"That's perfectly fine. Now Madam Pomfrey has allowed us to use the infirmary's Floo to go to Diagon Alley, though if you wish to come back to Hogwarts after you finish your business we will need to return through the Floo in my office."

Dumbledore sincerely hoped Harry would come back to Hogwarts but ultimately the decision wasn't his and he had no way of knowing what his choice will be.

Harry didn't respond verbally, instead he responded through his actions. Mainly standing up and then helping Sakura stand up before they both walked to the fireplace. Thankfully the school had, had some spare robes on hand so Sakura wasn't forced to wear her pajamas on this trip. They could have also had new clothes transfigured for them, though they didn't know it.

"Now. Floo travel is extremely simple. All you do is grab a handful of powder, and I do mean a you size handful, and throw it down on the fireplace while standing inside it. You need to enunciate your destination clearly to arrive where you want. In this case you would call out Diagon Alley, pronounced like you would say diagonally only with a pause in the middle. Go one at a time and wait once second to leave the fireplace when you arrive, otherwise you'll fall on your face."

Harry stared at the fireplace dubiously. "What kind of measurement is a handful? Shouldn't it be more exact than that?"

"It's a decent enough way to measure quickly, all excess material used simply flows into the Floo Network to help keep it powered so it isn't wasteful either." Was all Dumbledore could say.

"Ok I guess that makes since… You are going first though." Harry replied after he thought about Dumbledore's words for a moment.

Dumbledore couldn't help but to chuckle lightly at Harry's paranoia. Not that he wasn't well within reason to feel that way but the way he had expressed it just now was childish. Something which was a very good thing in his mind, children shouldn't have to grow beyond such things like Harry acted most of the time.

"Diagon Alley." Dumbledore enunciated slowly as he threw down the Floo Powder.

Harry watched as immediately afterwards he seemingly got engulfed by green flames. He had technically seen it before but watching the process up close, and with much more of his attention on it, was very interesting. He even thought he saw a sort of…rip or tear open for a split second between the wizard's feet. It was extremely fast however so he wasn't completely sure.

Harry squeezed Sakura's hand before he decided to step into the fireplace. In the off chance the other side led to a trap he'd be there first this way. It also had the side benefit of putting Sakura more at ease with the whole thing. Standing in a fireplace and basically exploding said fireplace in order to teleport was kind of a daunting thought after all.

"I'll be waiting for you on the other side. Don't worry." Harry told her with a smile before he threw the powder to the ground. "Diagon Alley!"

Instantly he was gone and Harry felt his mind spin as he saw what felt like endless flashes of different rooms and fireplaces pass him by. Everything was tinted green and there was a vague sense of warmness throughout this strange…dimension for lack of a better word. And then it stopped and Harry had arrived at his destination if the patient visage of Dumbledore was anything to go by. Waiting the recommended second Harry then proceeded to exit out into the rather grungy looking pub on the other side.

Harry quickly spun up his Thought Acceleration and Partition as he observed his surroundings, noting everything single person in the room, their posture, what they were paying attention to and their potential threat level. As soon as he got that his brain started working on various escape and attack plans in case the worst occurred while simultaneously positioning his body so as to keep himself between the fireplace and them.

Only Dumbledore seemed to notice what he was actually doing however, though the eleven odd other patrons, and the single barkeep, were looking at him in curiosity. Harry heard the sound of the Floo being activated behind him and shifted himself slightly so he could look at it out of the corner of his eye. It was a good thing too as it gave him enough time to catch Sakura when she was basically shot out of the fireplace. Luckily his body was reinforced otherwise he might have fallen over, a bad place to be in case of hostilities.

"You alright Sakura?" Harry asked in concern, his eyes never once stopping their rapid movements around the room.

"I'm fine. I just forgot to wait." Sakura said meekly, a light dusting of pink on her face showing due to the embarrassment of her mistake.

"That's alright, you'll remember next time." He said gently before turning his head to give Dumbledore a look.

The old headmaster, who Harry noted was getting quite a few dirty looks from the other people present, calmly made his way over to them.

"If you are ready I will lead us into the alley." Dumbledore said, deciding against making any comments about Harry's behavior or Sakura's small mishap.

Harry nodded his head as his hand slipped into Sakura's, griping it firmly to provide comfort and as a minor precaution against getting seperated. As the old wizard led the way out a back door Harry made sure his body was blocking as much of Sakura from the other magical's views. They still noticed her however, and the feeling of them all looking at her caused Sakura to shrink in on herself in discomfort. Just for that he wanted to hurt them but realized that it was a bad decision at the moment as it would bring too much potential harm to Sakura if he did, and he guessed they didn't really deserve it as well if he was pressed to admit it.

Her tense body loosened up once they had exited the pub though she, like Harry, wrinkled her nose as the exit seemed to lead into a filthy back alley. This wizards and witches definitely were not Magi if this was the entrance to one of their major enclaves. The Victorian-esk shopping street on the other side of the wall, which Dumbledore made disappear after touching some bricks, however was slightly more in line with them.

Sakura's eyes conveyed her shock, and confusion, at the sight of it all. It was interesting to look at and did have a few hints of magic about it but…it was too plain. It simply looked like a regular Victorian era street, and a rather poor and messy one at that.

"This is…disappointing." Harry couldn't help but say, his thoughts mirroring Sakura's own.

Dumbledore just laughed. "It has its own quaint charm once you get used to it. Though I do have to agree. Diagon Alley hasn't changed in appearance in centuries. Hogsmeade is much more interesting I assure you. A few of my old mundane-born students went out and got mundane degrees in Architecture that they made full use of to design the city as it grew into what it has now become. It also helped that those that come from outside our society are often more…creative than our own and they truly made the city look magical as a result. I think it has to do with how they never truly got inured to the whimsical nature of magic, unlike those born into it usually are."

The two children looked around Diagon Alley, taking in the various shops and people that walked its street as Dumbledore gave his explanation, noting the two distinct groups of people that were present in appreciable numbers. One side looked like stereotypical old time witches or warlocks complete with bland, and black, robes and pointy hats. The other side however had no real set style as they dressed up in a variety of clothes from normal jeans and t-shirts to long skirts seemingly made purely out of fire. It was clear, after Dumbledore's explanation, which side belonged to which blood grouping.

Eventually however the two children stopped looking and Dumbledore, taking the unspoken que, started leading them towards the large marble bank Harry noticed in the distance. Again Harry noticed the many dirty looks Dumbledore was getting, from both groups, though admittedly the traditional side had the higher proportion.

"Why do they look at you like that? What did you do?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

Dumbledore sighed tiredly. "I failed you. I told you about your status amongst the populace, it's to be expected for them to act like that when news of your life got out, as well as my role in it."

Harry noted that Dumbledore tried his best to be as oblique as possible with his answer, for which he was grateful. If these people truly did know about his life at the Dursleys, a fact that the mere thought of alone pissed him off, then he could understand them disliking Dumbledore. He still couldn't wrap his head around the idea he was that important to these strangers however. It just seemed odd to him.

Fortunately, whether do to luck or the fact that nobody knew what he looked like, they got to the bank without anyone figuring out that little secret. Dumbledore also managed to avoid getting rotten tomatoes thrown at him so that was a plus too Harry guessed.

" _Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
So if you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there."_

As Harry finished reading the words he felt a subtle mystery try to seep into his body. His reaction was as instant as it was violent. While flooding his body with prana to force the magic out of his body another part of his mind helped Sakura do the same while the last enacted and launched several fire, wind and lightning based mysteries at the sign. It all happened too fast for Dumbledore to even react to let alone prevent, which meant that all his attacks landed on target, resulting in a large explosion right outside the bank that tore up the sign and several meters of marble steps and flooring.

Absentmindedly Harry noted the presence of an alarm ringing inside of the bank but that wasn't his main focus. That belonged to forcing Sakura to back away from him as a trio of short armed creatures, which had seemingly popped out of nowhere, wielding pikes attacked him from three different sides. Two of the blades were coming towards his sides in an effort to bisect him while the one in front was being thrust such that its point would pierce his heart if it landed. If he had been a normal ten-year-old, or even a normal untrained human, magical or not he would have died. Luckily he was far from normal and had the power of Reinforcement at his disposal.

With inhuman speed and grace Harry shot forward, his body tilting slightly to just barely skate past the pike aiming to pierce his heart. Due to his maneuver his left foot had was no longer making contact with the ground, leaving him slightly unbalanced however. The trio of warriors, proving that they were no amateurs, capitalized on this by quickly adjusting their attacks. The one to his left twisted his pike so that it was now heading towards him with a thrust while the one on his right brought his pike up in a diagonal cleave with the intent to cut off his arm. The one in front of him however, knowing that Harry was now too far inside his space, opted to go for a punch with his spiked gauntlet, dropping his pike so as to not accidentally get in his two comrades' way.

Again Harry performed an inhuman feat as, using only his right leg, he launched himself up and backwards enough to avoid the strikes, managing to crack the marble floor due to the force he used. Of course this meant that both his feet were now off the ground and he was currently in mid-air, something the well trained warriors once again quickly tried to capitalize on. That was fine however, Harry now had the space and time to call upon his mysteries.

The warrior that had let go of his pike was suddenly faced with two earth spears shooting up towards his vulnerable throat from the ground while the remaining two met with balls of fire and jagged shards of lightening. Showcasing surprising strength, the bare handed warrior managed to completely shatter the hardened earth sphere with a punch. The two armed ones on the other hand took a different approach as they infused magic into their weapons and cut through the elemental spells Harry had thrown somehow. His mind running in overdrive with the help of mysteries Harry took in his situation even as he used a wind burst type mystery to propel himself backwards so he didn't land on pike heads or lose a leg to a swipe.

From within the bank Harry noted that a large group of similarly attired warriors were charging his way even as he was forced to dodge a faster than expected charge by one of his current opponents. Ducking under the blow Harry lashed out with his reinforced fist, aiming for the back of the warrior's knee. The blow landed, and even managed to stagger it, but Harry's fist throbbed in response to the contact, the weaker armor located there proving to be more than a match for his Reinforced durability. He had no time to dwell on the discomfort however as the being's two companions were about to be upon him.

Using his affinity to Earth, Harry raised up an angled platform underneath himself. Pushing off the new makeshift ramp he was able to retreat away from the incoming overhead swipes, the formerly disarmed warrior apparently picking up his weapon before starting his charge towards him. This time Harry decided he needed to be a bit more creative and launched several water spheres at the ground, soaking both it and his three opponents quite thoroughly. Before he could even summon his lightening attacks however the trio caught onto what he was planning and, after charging their pikes with magic once more, smashed them into the ground somehow causing both it and them to dry completely as a result.

Silently cursing to himself Harry launched his lightening bolts anyways in the hope of buying himself some more time. Before they even made it halfway however an incredibly large and powerful shield of raw magic sprung into being between Harry and the trio of warriors. Harry only needed to look out of the corner of his eye to see the source. Dumbledore.

"Harry stand down! This is a misunderstanding! Honored Warriors this is the result of a mistake made by one of our young, I ask that you cease hostilities to wait for mediation. I am willing to pay the cost of repairing your bank as well as any fine you wish to impose on his behalf."

That caused Harry to cease his plans to continue the fight, well, that and the fact that his three opponents likewise assumed passive postures. His mind no longer in pure combat mode Harry was able to more carefully observe the surroundings, noting that a large group of gawkers were slowly forming at the bottom of the bank's steps. He also made careful note of where Sakura was and the possible threats surrounding her. There were none so long as he could count on Dumbledore to protect her and not be a danger which, while he did so with great reluctance, he was willing to do at the moment. That was when he noticed Sakura's face, and the fact that she was crying…because of him. He had worried her with his actions hadn't he?

"…I fucked up didn't I?" He couldn't help but voice aloud with a tired sigh. There **had** been other options available to him rather than start a full blown magical fight after all. He just hadn't even considered them at the time, a mistake he will eventually come to realize was caused by him still being in an extreme fight or flight state due to his and Sakura's recent escape.

"That you did human. You will explain your actions now or forever be banished from Goblin land! You and your family's wealth forfeited to the Goblin Nation as recompense for your offense." A rather ugly green skin creature that, apparently, was a goblin wearing a petticoat growled at him with anger clear in his tone.

"…" Harry could say nothing. He really had fucked up hadn't he?

 **AN: So I hope you liked the small fight scene I wrote. I think I've been getting better at them so let me know what you think.**

 **Pairing information is as follows. It's Harry/multi, which I believed I stated in an earlier chapter's author note somewhere. As for who is in it, Sakura is the only one I'll name. There are only two other confirmed however and I'm debating whether to add one or two more. But there will be no more than five at maximum. While I don't mind mass harem and may even eventually make a story with one if I feel like it, it just doesn't work here. Pairing isn't an issue that will come up for a long time however considering Harry is just a kid currently.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: I love my new meds, I really do. Here's chapter 6 you lucky readers you.**

 **PS: I appreciate all the reviews I've been getting. I don't respond to them but I do read them all so thank you for them all.**

 _Italics for thoughts._

Harry stared at the goblin across from him his eyes hard, showing his unwillingness to fully back down in this situation. Sakura was really the only reason he had stopped fighting in the first place and decided to follow the small army of goblins into a "private" meeting room. She wasn't upset that he was fighting per say, it was more along the lines of her being incredibly afraid that he was going to get hurt because of the fighting that caused her to be upset. It was hard to blame her considering how badly he had been hurt during their escape from Zouken just two days ago. It also didn't help that she could tell he had been slowly losing his fight against the three goblins, and there had been an army's worth of the same warriors charging out to back them up nearby.

So no, Harry couldn't blame her (not that he'd ever blame her for something) but that didn't mean he was fully ready to let down his guard after he stopped fighting. He hadn't been imagining the sign trying to cast some sort of mystery on them, something he'd get an explanation for or there would be consequences.

"Tell me wizard." The goblin in the pinstripe suit spat out the word wizard like it was dirtying his tongue just uttering it. "Why did you decide to declare war against the Goblin Nation?"

"I'm sure it was simply a misu-" Dumbledore began to speak.

Harry cut him off however. "Tell **me** goblin." Harry returned the favor as he spoke the word goblin as if he was spitting out poison. "Why did your 'nation' decide to declare war on **me."**

The goblin bristled at the accusation, his sharp teeth morphing into a snarl in response. "We did no such thing! Our race has honor and would never start a conflict with a sneak attack, unlike **your** kind wizard."

"Then why was your sign trying to put a curse on us." Harry shot back instantly.

The goblin started a bit in surprise, before his eyes narrowed sharply. "Don't try to make up lies human lest I rip your tongue from your head, along with your companions for their being party to your offense."

Harry Reinforced his body at the provocation, his core increasing the rate it released prana into the air as his anger spiking to the extreme at the threat that had just been directed at Sakura. "If you **ever** threaten Sakura again I will forget any and all danger to myself in order to burn your alive, even if it means my death you fucking mongrel."

Sakura squeezed his hand tightly, urging him to calm down, but he couldn't listen to her in this situation, not after what it had just said. His threat, and his display of raw magical power, served to take the goblin aback for a split second before it responded to **his** threat by drawing a dagger out of his coat and barring his teeth.

It was at this point that Dumbledore intervened once more.

"Enough! Honored manager, Harry, please put aside your hostilities for the moment so we can clear up this horrible misunderstanding."

Neither of them backed down however, their eyes locked with one another even as Harry kept attention on the many guards in the room and the goblin keeping part of his attention on Dumbledore. They didn't go any further either though, which gave Dumbledore the chance to continue his efforts in attempting to calm them down.

"Harry, I am sure that whatever you noticed happening was not done with truly malicious intent, so please hear the Honored manager out. Honored manager, all I ask is that you see Harry's perspective on what occurred, and how you would react if one of your brood or mates was potentially getting exposed to a hostile curse."

Those words served to slightly ease the tension of the goblin but it required Sakura tugging on Harry's hand to make him back off as well, though he did so reluctantly.

"Fine. I will hear your explanation but that's it." Harry said as he calmed himself down, though he made sure to keep his Reinforcement and partitions running just in case.

Likewise, the goblin kept his dagger out though it shifted its body into a more defensive stance. "I am willing to hear the wizard's words Dumbledore, but I make no promises as to his fate."

Dumbledore held in his heavy sigh admirably as he replied. "That's all I ask. Now, would either of you mind me being the mediator for this conversation or do you wish for an alternative?"

Harry flicked his eyes to Dumbledore then at his surroundings. He didn't trust a goblin to be the mediator nor did he know anyone else besides Sakura in this reality, so he eventually had to agree with Dumbledore's appointment to mediator. The goblin was a bit more reluctant than Harry but he too eventually gave his consent.

"Thank you. First point of order then. Harry, would you mind explaining what occurred in your perspective. Honored manager, I ask that you hold in your remarks until after he is done. I assure you that you will be given enough time to respond once he is."

Harry gave Dumbledore a look before flicking his eyes to Sakura, seeing the silent urging she had in her eyes. Heaving a mental sigh, he began to speak.

"There's not too much to it. I felt some kind of curse or magical effect invade my body after reading the sign and I reacted to the threat. Since I believed the cause was the sign, I destroyed it to stop it from attempting to curse Sakura or me again. Then, when those Goblins appeared, I fought them since they were also a threat, as evidenced by their attempts to immediately kill me. I would have continued trying to kill them if Dumbledore hadn't got in the way. Be lucky that Sakura doesn't want me to fight, otherwise..."

The goblin in the suit in front of him looked pissed at his tacked-on threat but kept himself from talking somehow.

"Harry enough." Dumbledore chided him firmly, causing Harry to scowl at him in response. He did stop speaking however and, seeing that, Dumbledore motioned for the Goblin to being speaking.

"There's nothing to say. The wizard attacked goblin property on goblin land. We were acting well within our rights when the guards attacked him." The creature spat out.

Dumbledore quickly interceded again before things dissolved into a full blown argument once more.

"Enough! Honored manager I am positive that Harry wouldn't make up something like that. Do you swear, by your honor as a fully-blooded warrior of the Goblin Nation, that he was mistaken and that there was no curse or magical effect attached to the bank's sign?"

The goblin stilled at that, its flinty eyes darting between Dumbledore and Harry, then back again. Eventually, begrudgingly, it answered the question, its voice a low aggravated grumble.

"The wizard...was not mistaken."

Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise at the admission while Harry just narrowed his eyes at the creature as he moved into a slightly more aggressive stance. He wasn't going to take the chance that the creature wouldn't try and silence them for obtaining that knowledge.

"And what was your sign trying to do to us Goblin." Harry asked sharply.

The goblin snarled at Harry's lack of respect. "That's none of your business wizard! And you best learn to address me properly lest I challenge you to a blood duel for your disrespect."

Harry was about to snap back at it but another urgent tug on his hand by Sakura caused him to back down slightly, letting Dumbledore respond in his place.

"Honored Manager Harry is new to the magical world and has not had time to learn the intricacy of our world let alone yours. That being said I would also like to know what magical effect was attached to your sign. While the method Harry used might have not been the best you must admit he enough reason to react aggressively to being targeted by unknown magic."

The goblin looked far from convinced but he had no real room to maneuver in this situation without being dishonorable. Even by their own laws Harry's actions weren't in the wrong in this situation. "Fine, I will give an explanation but all three of you will need to sign contracts to never disclose the information. So long as you do that, we will also waive off all penalties and fees associated with the...incident."

It was obviously a distasteful decision for the goblin but Harry didn't care.

"I'm assuming the contract will be a Gias?"

Dumbledore looked at him in intrigue at his use of the word while the Goblin likewise seemed surprised.

"Not many known the old name for magical contracts these days wizard. But yes, it will be Gias."

Harry filed that information away for later but, after looking briefly back at Sakura, agreed to the goblins condition.

"I am willing to sign the Gias so long as I get the chance to read it over first. Sakura will sign it if I do as well"

"I'd consider you a fool if you didn't." Was all the goblin said in reply.

"I am willing to sign as well, Honored Manager." Dumbledore chimed in.

With a sharp nod of his head the goblin turned to one of the nearby guards and motioned for it to go and fetch the contracts. They had never been used before but the Goblin Nation liked to be prepared and already had contracts ready for this kind of situation, assuming the person who found out wasn't kill first that was.

It didn't take more than five, tense, minutes for the guard to return with three contracts in his hands. Dumbledore and Harry wasted no time scrutinizing the contract as closely as possible while Sakura did her best to make sense of it as well, with admittedly less luck. The contract was incredibly wordy and lengthy but ultimately it boiled down to them not being able to disclose the secrets they found out to any non-Goblin on pain of death and several other penalties. From what both Harry and Dumbledore could see there were no glaring loopholes or traps in the contract though and, after discussing it between themselves, signed their names on the contracts.

The lead goblin quickly snatched them up and, after checking that the signatures were valid and magically binding, handed them off to another guard to place them in secure storage. After doing so he then gave his explanation.

"The boy was right. There was a curse attached to the sign as part of the bank's defense system. It had two parts. One, to place a misfortune curse on those who read it, which would activate in case of them trying to rob the bank. And Two, a curse to make those who read the sign lose their sense of direction and distort memories on goblin land so as to prevent memorization of the layout of the tunnels and vault of the bank."

Dumbledore widened his eyes in shock.

"That's both impressive and ingenius at the same time. My only question would be how neither I, nor any other witch or wizard, noticed the curses being planted on us and the effects they caused."

The goblin smirked mockingly, its sharp teeth gleaming slightly in the room's low levels of light. "Goblin magic is not something your kind can even comprehend let alone notice wizard. We are just too different and your senses too dull. Which begs the question on how the boy was able to notice them."

He finished as he pierced Harry with a glare, one that Harry returned readily.

"No matter what method you used a curse still needs to latch onto its target soul to take effect. I simply noticed when that happened."

The goblin growled. "Don't lie wizard, your kind does not possess that kind of talent."

Dumbledore, despite already feeling exhausted by his role as mediator, again interjected to head off their verbal confrontation.

"Harry is a unique individual Honored Manager and has learned to use magic in ways different from normal wizarding kind. He also has experience in detecting souls and other foreign presences within his body so that likely also played a role."

Harry turned his glare at Dumbledore at that, not liking how he had given away that information. The old headmaster ignored it however, it needed to be said lest the situation devolve again. It worked to as, while he looked far from happy, the Goblin seemed to accept his reasoning, though he didn't quite let the matter drop just yet.

"And are there any other... unique individuals the Goblin Nation needs to be on the lookout for Dumbledore?"

This time Dumbledore let Harry answer the question, which he only did for the sake of finishing this whole ordeal.

"Doubtful. Both Sakura and myself should be the only ones in the world."

The goblin stared at Harry hard, measuring the truth of his words for several long seconds, before he grunted.

"Fine. Consider this matter done, no fines or penalties shall be placed on you or your accounts and Gringotts will pay for the repairs to the bank itself. Now, do you have any other business with us wizard."

It was clear to Harry that the goblin was still holding a grudge but ultimately didn't care.

"Yes. I was told my family has a vault here and I wish to meet with whoever is managing it."

"Name?" The goblin grunted out.

Harry grimaced slightly but told it his last name. "Potter."

The goblin jerked its head at that and once again it started staring at Harry intensely.

"...Be warned that if your claim proves to be false you will die as the result wizard."

"That won't happen Honored Manager, he is Harry Potter, though he prefers to be addressed by his first name." Dumbledore said in Harry's place.

The goblin grunted before snapping his fingers at one of the guards. "Very well. Take the supposed Harry Potter and his companions to meet with his account manager."

The guard snapped a salute before starting to walk away, neither saying a word nor gesturing for them to follow forcing the three humans to rush after him without being able to ask any more questions of the manager. A fact that annoyed Harry if he was being honest but he had no choice but to drop it. All he really wanted to do at this point was get some money, or access to money, as quickly as possible. He was not very fond of the Goblins now and wanted to get off their land sooner rather than later.

The guard never spoke as it led them down a long winding hallway filled with doors. Each door was slightly different from the others and had writing on them in a language Harry couldn't recognize. It took five straight minutes of walking for the group to arrive at their destination, upon which the guard promptly left them, still without speaking once.

Dumbledore took the lead after that and approached the door they had been deposited in front of and knocked on it.

"Enter!" A gruff voice from inside barked out at them.

Dumbledore then proceeded to open the door, holding it open for Harry and Sakura, before entering the room itself. The room in question was of decent size and fairly plain all things considered. The only decorations being the lone desk in the middle and the assorted weapons on the walls, which Harry wasn't entirely sure were actually decorations.

"What do you want Dumbledore?" The goblin groused.

"I've come to introduce young Harry here to his account manager and let him withdraw funds from the vault." Dumbledore replied succinctly.

The goblin's head, which had been tilted down as he dealt with paperwork, shot up and scrutinized Dumbledore, and Harry, with beady eyes. Apparently, it didn't seem convinced judging by the look on its face but kept its comments to itself.

"Very well, have 'Mr. Potter' place his hand on the identification stone then. If he's who he says he is then we can proceed from there." It said, gesturing to a jagged blood red stone that sat atop its desk.

Harry was reluctant to do so, not trusting the device, or the goblin, after what happened before. Dumbledore noticed this however and tried to reassure him.

"Don't worry Harry, all the stone will do is draw some blood and use it to prove your identity. There are no other effects."

"Are you sure about that? You never noticed there was a curse on the sign either before now after all." Harry replied slightly mockingly, causing the Goblin in the room to widen its eyes in surprise.

"Excuse me, did you just say that you discovered the curse on our sign?" It asked in disbelief.

Harry snorted. "You could say that."

"What he means is that he did and we needed to sign contracts to not disclose the information as a result." Dumbledore interjected, not wanting the possibility of the incident outside the bank to come to light so soon with the account manager.

"I see..." The goblin mused thoughtfully, its eyes still locked on Harry so as to take his measure. "In that case then you would be right, the stone does have another effect, a couple of them in fact. It checks for any foreign influence or falsehoods on the person who touches it, such as shape-shifting or mind control magic. It also compares your blood to all the other samples we have on record, which extends several centuries into your kind's past."

Dumbledore felt like sighing in exasperation. He sincerely hoped this wasn't going to become a common trend for Harry.

"And why have you told us this." Harry asked suspiciously.

"Because you have proven yourself better than the rest of your kind and because the contract you signed covers all Gringott's secrets, not just the one about the sign.

Harry's eye twitched as he noticed the condescension in the Goblin's voice, but ultimately kept himself from saying anything. He just wanted this part of the day to be over, which was why he decided to simply place his hand on the stone without waiting for any further talking.

He felt something slice the skin on his palm, allowing a small trickle of blood to get smeared on the stone before something else healed the cut just as quickly. He took his hand off at that point and nodded that the stone was glow slightly while the goblin stared at it intently. A few seconds later it stopped and the Goblin turned its attention back to Harry, it's demeanor slightly less abrasive than it had been at the beginning.

"Well then Mr. Potter. What do you need from me?"

"Either hard cash or a way to charge purchases directly to my account."

The Goblin nodded its head before opening a drawer in its desk and pulling out a black card, which it promptly tossed to Harry. Harry caught it easily and took note that the card seemed to be made out of either obsidian or some other smooth, black-colored stone. There was also nothing on the card except for what looked like an extremely small ritual circle in the middle of one side of it.

"Place a drop of your blood in the middle of the circle and it will be linked to your account. The card acts as credit card in the non-magical world and a source of cheques in the magical world."

The goblin explained. Despite his wariness Harry reluctantly did as instructed, making sure to pay extra attention to himself as he did so. Nothing happened however beyond the card glowing softly for a split second.

"Now, is there anything else or can I get back to my work?" The goblin asked brusquely.

Dumbledore looked like he was about to speak but Harry cut him off.

"You said that the stone checked my blood against the others in your records, right?"

"Yes, do you have a point wizard?" It asked, seemingly starting to get annoyed.

"Then can you tell me what families or vaults I have ties to?" Harry asked, figuring that since Dumbledore mentioned the magical world had a bit of an inbreeding problem, he might have another vault he could claim. If so that meant he wouldn't have to rely on the Potter vault which, while he would use because it was practical, did make him slightly uncomfortable.

The goblin scowled at him. "Your kind all have ties to one another, so yes you are linked to all magical families in Britain, and a few outside of Britain as well. None of them you have a strong claim on however otherwise I would have mentioned it."

"Then that means I have a weak claim on some then?" Harry asked upon noticing the implication.

The goblin's frown deepened. "Mr. Potter, do you really wish me to waste my valuable time telling you every single fault you have a weak claim to, even though it would be impossible for you to ever have access to them."

"What's the vault I have the strongest claim to out of all of those." He asked, not giving up quite yet.

The goblin sighed in annoyance. "The Black fortune, which you are eight in line for. In order for you to have access the other eight need to either give up their claim or die. Barring that you would need the one who currently is in charge of the Black family to grant you access or give you heir status. Now, are you done?"

Harry, noting the clear irritation in his account manager's voice, decided he was in fact done. If it was that difficult to get access to a different source of wealth than it was better to just forget about it. After all if he was only eight in line for the one he had the strongest claim for he didn't even need to think about the ones he had even weaker claims to.

"That's all."

"Then get out of my office." The Goblin barked out gruffly.

Despite being irritated by the goblin's attitude Harry forced himself to ignore it. He had what he came here for and now it was better to simply leave. Something that he promptly did, Sakura following right after and Dumbledore coming after he formally said goodbye to the goblin.

The trio left the bank with no further problems though that statement didn't apply to outside the bank. The number of gawkers had actually increased and, more than that, there appeared to be some kind of magical police or soldiers keeping order as well monitoring the bank's entrance. When the latter group spotted them, a group detached themselves from crowd control to intercept them before they even made it fully down the steps. Harry noticed that this group also seemed to have a bone to pick with Dumbledore and he prepared himself for combat once again.

Dumbledore had stated that the government was corrupted and obsessed with their image. While Harry only had his word on that it was better to be safe than sorry, because there's no telling how the enforcement arm of the government would react to the current situation. He did know one thing however. If they tried to arrest or detain them Harry was taking them out. The people that had wanted to capture them when they first arrived were part of the government apparently after all and it was entirely possible that they were "wanted" as a result. It was also quite likely that they'd conveniently "disappear" if they got brought in.

"I should have known you'd be involved in this miss Dumbledore. Tell me, did you declare war against the Goblin Nation on purpose or was it another one of your 'accidents'." The lead wizard sneered.

Dumbledore retained his composure however. "There was no declaration of war Auror Dwalish. The whole incident was a simple misunderstanding and the goblins have accepted the reasons behind it. So yes, it was an accident, one that has been dealt with."

The man named Dwalish seemed to sneer harder at the old wizard's words. "I'm sure...But I'm afraid we're going have to take you and your two...companions in for questioning. I'm also quite curious as to the reason why you are dragging two children along with you when Hogwart's is still in session. And please, do fight back, I would love the excuse."

Harry tensed up, his eyes glaring a hole into Dwalish's head as he summoned up his attack mysteries for the second time that day. This time however he went full blast immediately unlike with the goblins, summoning up dozens of elemental attacks to float around him primed for attack. His display shocked all the magicals present and caused the aurors to reach for their wands as they readied themselves for combat.

"Harry please get rid of your attacks. I'm sure Aurora Dwalish didn't mean what he said. After all it is illegal to detain minors without their guardian's consent, especially since they haven't been charged with any crime." Dumbledore stated calmly, though his eyes were twinkling slightly in amusement at the look on Dwalish's pale face.

"That boy is using magic outside of school! I have plenty of reason to bring him in now!" Dwalish shouted in false bravado.

"Actually, the law only states that they can't use their wands to practice magic outside of school and I assure you he possesses no wand." Dumbledore countered.

"You expect me to believe that a child is capable of such a strong display of wandless magic?" Dwalish asked incredulously.

"Yes. It's the truth after all. He hasn't even reached his 11th birthday yet so he **couldn't** even possess a wand."

While Dumbledore and Dwalish continued to try and verbally out maneuver each other Harry continued to remain in a tense standoff with the fifteen other aurors present. The aurors continuously shifted around, hands' always on their wands, as they attempted to get better angles on Harry. Meanwhile Harry, making use of his partitions, changed the orientation of his mysteries in order to keep them from attempting any attacks.

Since none of his attention was on Dumbledore however, he nearly flinched when the man addressed him seemingly out of nowhere.

"You can release your spells now, Auror Dwalish here has agreed that this was all a misunderstanding and that we're free to go."

Harry didn't immediately comply however, instead waiting for Dwalish to motion for his men to stand down and clear them a path. Only then did Harry release his mysteries, though he kept his reinforcement and accelerated partitions on in case it was a trick. He also made sure to keep close to Sakura and place her between him in Dumbledore in order to protect her better. Thankfully however they got away without another incident.

"Well...forgive me if it's a bit presumptuous but I'm going to assume that you no longer wish to stay in the Alley." Dumbledore said as he led them back to the Leaky Cauldron, the inn/bar they had arrived in by Floo.

"Yes." Harry replied stiffly, his eyes even now continuing to dart around and make note of the extra attention of the passing witches and wizards, along with their few stalkers trailing behind them.

"Then would you like to go shopping in mundane London, go to Hogsmeade or something else?"

Harry stopped his eyes briefly to look at Sakura and share a non-verbal conversation with her before replying. "London. We need clothes and other necessities for the next few days at least. though we should stop at a baggage store to pick up something to carry it all in."

Dumbledore hummed thoughtfully. "If you want you can purchase a magic trunk here in the Alley before leaving. There are a wide variety of trunks with space expansion charms after all. I could also simply shrink your purchases to be easier to carry."

Harry stilled briefly at the bombshell Dumbledore just dropped on them. "Your kind can manipulate spatial dimensions? You can manipulate an objects size as well? Not to mention how common place teleportation is. What's next children performing True Magic?"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow as he turned back to look at Harry. "Yes, it's fairly common to use in construction and storage containers in the magical world, for both of those things in fact. Though I don't know what True Magic is. And is not just my kind Harry, you are capable of learning how to perform those kinds of spells with enough training and practice as well. I'm not sure about young Sakura however."

Harry just knew Dumbledore was trying to bribe/bait him into deciding to get a magical education rather than run, and the problem was it was working. It was annoying though he realized it wasn't necessarily a bad thing to happen either. He didn't really have a goal anymore since he had managed to succeed in his previous one. Going to school to learn more magic wasn't a bad way to spend time until he figured out what he wanted to do from now on. He had gotten quite fond of researching during his time at the Matou's after all, even if he hadn't really done much of it for fun. It was not a decision he'd be making soon however. He still needed to see if what Dumbledore had told him was the truth, and then look up information on the various schools, before that. Which wasn't even taking into account the need to find a place to live and figuring out what Sakura would do if he attended. Well he knew that last one, she'd come with him wherever he went, he just needed to figure out how to make that work.

"I think I'd like to purchase one of those...space expanded trunks you mentioned." Harry eventually said.

Dumbledore nodded. "Very well, then the best place to go is Trunks and Trunks shop of Trunks and Trunk Accessories, which luckily is close by.

Harry felt his eye twitch at that name. Sakura however giggled lightly at its silliness, which instantly caused Harry to forget his irritation and smile as well. It was the first time he had heard her laugh since before their escape.

Thankfully Dumbledore was telling the truth and, after a brief look around the store, Harry purchased a single compartment expanded trunk from the shop's owner, whose last name was Trunks. Yeah really. The trunk also came in with feather-light and shrinking enchantments which meant he could carry an entire bedroom's worth of stuff inside of his pocket and not even notice. It was as impressive as it was mind boggling.

After that Dumbledore led them into London proper for shopping by way of apparating to an out of the way alley next to Harrods. Dumbledore had been right about that method making them feel nauseous, though Sakura seemed to have it worse than he did sadly. After making sure she was feeling well enough Harry held her hand and followed after Dumbledore into the store. Thankfully the old headmaster had transformed his outfit into a slightly dated business suit so he didn't stand out (it was expected that such an old man would be a bit behind the times after all). It would have been awkward answering people's questions about why they were with a strange old man dressed up like a hippie-wizard hybrid. Not it just looked like he was their grandfather.

Shopping at Harrods went fairly quickly all things considered. Harry had relatively simple tastes and preferred to dress in black, purple and silver colors, though he didn't mind blue either, so finding enough clothes to last a week was simple enough. Likewise, Sakura also had simpler tastes in clothes, preferring purple, red and black colors, though she also liked white, so it only took her a bit longer to decide on seven days' worth of clothes. They could have gotten more clothes but decided to leave it for another time as they had more important things they wanted to get done before the day was over. That and because neither liked being around to many people.

Their shopping excursion continued as they purchased hygiene items, some towels and food/drinks. While they had decided to stay at Hogwarts for another night during their trip they weren't comfortable relying on Dumbledore for things if they could help it. Harry had wanted to buy a laptop as well but ended up not doing so after Dumbledore said it wouldn't work around their style of magic. Though apparently there were ones for sale in Hogsmeade that did, in fact, work around magic if he wanted to buy one there. Harry couldn't think of a reason why magic would mess with electronics, nor why the ones in Hogsmeade were different, it didn't really make sense. Ultimately however it didn't matter, he would just get one when they shopped there or, if he didn't like them, get a mundane built one like he had originally wanted.

The lunch break that followed the shopping in London was a rather awkward affair as Harry didn't have anything he wanted to talk with Dumbledore about nor did he wanted him to hear any of his conversations with Sakura. Dumbledore noticed this and thus kept his silence while Sakura become completely introverted due to the number of people around them. Luckily their lunch didn't take that long either so the awkward atmosphere faded mostly to the background as Dumbledore took them to the last place they wanted to visit in London today before moving on, a library.

Sakura sat on Harry's lap as he used one of the library computers to open up Google. She wanted, **needed** , to see this but she also knew she couldn't do it herself. She was too afraid. Even while Harry was holding her close and projecting calming emotions to her she was close to running away or shutting down. She didn't however and a quick search of the name Sakura Matou revealed all the answers she could have ever wanted, and more that she never wanted answered.

Harry struggled to keep himself from smashing the computer in anger for the answers his search gave them. Sakura would have been doomed to a lifetime of misery with only a miracle's chance she'd ever be happy in her life. She'd have suffered under Shinji and her grandfather for years before even that happened, if it ever did happen. There was only one good thing Harry took out from everything they read, which was the existence of Rider/Medusa. Harry made a silent vow in the back of his mind that he was going to find her and thank her profusely for what she did, what she was willing to do, for Sakura.

There was other useful information like the name of what entity had been inside Sakura though none of it was good. Harry had known Zouken was a twisted monster to put fragments of All the World's Evils into Sakura? That was as insane as it was cruel, and Harry's desire to eventually return and erase his existence grew to levels he never thought possible. Hatred started to consume his being as he started making plans for the creators of this…abomination to suffer dearly for what they had done. For what they had shown him.

It was far worse for Sakura however. What she had just read about herself lead her to the conclude that she had been created for the singular purpose of suffering. That shook her to her core and made the numerous dark thoughts of her worthlessness, that she didn't deserve to be happy, seem like they had always been right. That Harry had sacrificed himself for a disgusting omen of misfortune like her. She started shutting down, the small spark of life Harry had seen in her eyes snuffed out as her entire body just radiated despair.

Dumbledore, who had been waiting a distance away to give them privacy during all this, noticed the changes in both of them with alarm.

 _What did they read that could have possibly done this to them?_ He thought, though he didn't ponder on it long. The answer didn't matter at the moment as right now he needed to run damage control. Hastily throwing up anti-muggle and notice-me-not wards Dumbledore proceeded to focus on everything Good and Light within him as he cast the only spell he knew that could help them in this situation.

An ethereal silver phoenix flew out from his wand, the aura surrounding it doing its namesake proud as it projected feelings of love, peace and safety to not just Harry and Sakura, but everyone else in the library as well such was its strength. The fragile light in Sakura's eyes was rekindled, the wrath boiling Harry's mind cooled and rational thought reasserted itself, as if by magic. Dumbledore continued to keep the Patronus going however, not willing to risk them relapsing instantly, as he hastily made his way over to the two children.

"Harry, Sakura, do you wish to talk about whatever it is that upset you?" He asked softly.

Both children turned to look at him simultaneously, before their eyes were instantly drawn to the glowing phoenix now resting on his shoulder. Taking the chance while they were distracted Dumbledore looked at the computer screen and the information they pulled up, his Occlumency enhanced brain instantly committing everything displayed to memory. It didn't take long for him to go over the information and figure out what had happened after that. Though the shock of it caused him to unconsciously stare at Sakura in utter bafflement, and extreme sympathy, for a moment.

"What….what is that?" Sakura asked meekly, her voice soft enough that it barely counted as a whisper.

Dumbledore heard it anyways. "It's a Patronus, a Light spell that is molded from the love and positive emotions of the one powering it. It was created initially to drive off a certain magical creature that feeds off negative emotions but it has other uses as you can no doubt see."

Hesitantly Sakura reached out her hand, as if she wanted to touch it but was afraid she might taint it. With a thought from Dumbledore the patronus flew off his shoulder to land on her outstretched arm. Sakura froze up completely, not daring to believe that something so…good would willingly touch someone as vile as her. Unconsciously tears started falling down her face as she basked in the utter **warmth** that radiated off the magical construct.

Harry, for his part, forced himself out of his own stupor to add his efforts to that of the patronus. He didn't forget Dumbledore however and, with but a look, he conveyed his heartfelt gratitude to the man for what he just did for Sakura. Despite now owing the man twice Harry found himself unable to feel upset by that fact. Mostly it was because Sakura had **needed** this but part of it was because he was now starting to willing trust the old wizard. It was hard to believe anyone who could make something this…good would betray him or Sakura after all.

Eventually, once Dumbledore (and Harry) deemed Sakura was stable enough once more, the trio finally left the library. Instead of going to Hogsmeade as planned however they went back to Hogwarts. Nobody felt like continuing the day after what just happened. It just didn't feel right, especially for Sakura who, without the support of the phoenix, was not doing so well anymore. She wasn't as bad as at the library but she was definitely worse than when they had left that morning. A fact that both Harry and Dumbledore noted with concern.

It didn't take long once they arrived back at Hogwarts for Sakura to collapse on one of the infirmary's beds and fall into restless sleep. Harry did his best to comfort her by letting her use his lap as a pillow and projecting what good emotions he could muster up to her, but it seemed to only have minimal effect. That knowledge pained him. He had, had a feeling that something like this would happen and was now berating himself for letting Sakura have her way on the issue. He should have stopped her from looking, he should have stopped **himself** from looking. But they had and now they both had to deal with the consequences.

"Harry…" Dumbledore said hesitantly.

Harry didn't look up as he was too busy looking at Sakura, but he did respond. "Yes?"

Dumbledore nearly winced at the utter exhaustion, and guilt, present in Harry's voice. "While this is not how I wished to bring up the topic it does highlight how important it is… I would like your permission to schedule Sakura an appointment with a mind healer."

Harry stilled but didn't look up as he responded tiredly. "…I can guess as to what a mind healer does but…explain how they do it."

Dumbledore couldn't help but note how Harry didn't even put up token protests to his suggestion. This situation was just that bad. "A mind healer is an expert in psychology and Legimency, the spell used by wizards and witches to read minds and memories. The methods they use for each patient differ but a common tactic is going into a patient's mind and experiencing traumatic memories alongside them so as to reduce the emotional impact and provide instant, and specifically direct, support. There are other methods as well, from extreme ones like removing memories to subtle ones like muting emotions related to the trauma they suffered. It will depend on the healer what they use however."

Harry digested the explanation slowly, never once looking away from Sakura. "…Do you swear on your life that a mind healer can help her, that they won't hurt her further?"

Dumbledore thought it very telling that Harry was willing to trust his word on the topic. "I can swear on my life and magic that they will try to help her but…I can't swear that they will. Nor can I swear that she won't be hurt during the healing process. Not even with magic is there a hundred percent chance of mental health treatment working. I still think that this is the best way for Sakura to get better."

Harry frowned but…he honestly thought Dumbledore was telling him the truth that it would be the best way. The fact that he admitted that it was possible a mind healer to fail or even worsen the situation made him feel that way even more so oddly enough.

"Ok." He whispered softly.

Dumbledore nodded solemnly at Harry's decision, knowing just how hard it was for him to make. He was fiercely protective of Sakura and for him to give up that power, to let someone else help her in his place, was almost a miracle. He'd respond to that sacrifice by pulling in some of his favors to get the best possible mind healer both Harry and Sakura could ask for. He'd do it anyways if he was being honest but now he literally wouldn't rest until he got it done.

He didn't leave to go do that immediately however, instead lingering for several more minutes to provide Harry with the small amount of comfort his presence might give him. Dumbledore couldn't help but curse the fact that Fawkes had just had his burning day, it was terrible timing but there wasn't anything he could do about it. Harry didn't seem to acknowledge his presence there after their conversation however and, eventually, he left the infirmary for his office. He had calls to make, favors to call in and hands to grease. One way or another he would ensure Sakura got the help she both needed and deserved.

 **AN: This should be the last of the angsty stuff for a while. Next chapter will have a time skip to the start of year 1. The tone will turn a bit lighter as well, though by how much I'm not sure yet. I haven't written the chapter after all. Anyways thanks for reading.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Fuck At &T... Just…fuck them. Also fuck the weather. That is all.**

Dumbledore walked down the streets of Hogsmeade, taking in the sights of the city that had sprouted up in response to the horrors of the Blood War. It was impressive, and a little humbling, seeing what the mundane-borns had been able to create. From buildings that seamlessly blended nature, magic and technology to roads in the sky made of water, floating parks that one could walk a full circle using the walls and ceiling, and even the lighting that changed from floating orbs of color, lamps of endless flame and glowing trees. It was beautiful and Dumbledore can only lament the fact that this hadn't occurred sooner.

He had of course tried to fully integrate mundane-born for decades, to get rid of the limitations of blood status and censor of any changes to their stagnant society, but it had always been in vain. The progress he had made was minimal at best despite his best efforts and political clout. Wizarding Britain just hadn't wanted and still didn't want to change. It pained him that he was only able to see that during the war. It was the war that made him realize that only drastic actions could ever grant mundane-borns and other 3rd and 4th class citizens a place in their world. Which was why he had used everything at his disposal to make Hogwarts and its territory nominally independent. In the end it had cost him his political positions (when combined with his "vigilante" actions during the war), a large portion of his wealth and a large number of favors and debts, but it had been worth it.

Hogsmeade was now a truly magical city and was finally living up to its reputation as the largest magical only settlement in the world. Thanks to the city none of his students would be unable to find work or be forced into menial dead end jobs. No longer did their ideas get smothered and their creativity beaten out of them. It wasn't perfect of course, nothing truly is, but it was vastly superior to the majority of magical governments in the world. Hogsmeade was now a beacon of Light in a world drowning in Greys and Darkness. Which is why he was so pleased when Harry had decided to live there.

The home Harry had chosen was a relatively modest one, a single story at the edge of one of the suburbs taking up a bit more than 140 square meters including the yard. Though considering what can be done with magic the external size wasn't the best indicator of the space it had. Whereas the external size would be roughly equivalent to a mundane three-bedroom house the one Harry bought had seven bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a "basement", a study, a library, a kitchen, a dining room and a living room. It was actually the cheapest house available for purchase surprisingly enough, though that was due to the fact it had no pre-installed wards. Harry had apparently found that a bonus rather than a negative however, likely because he didn't trust others to protect Sakura and himself. His self-created defenses were more than up to the task however.

Walking up to the door Dumbledore pressed the doorbell (magically enhanced to alert the occupants wherever they were in the house). He could have simply walked in of course considering he had full access but as he didn't live there he didn't want to be rude. He had managed to come far in his efforts to gain Harry's trust in the months leading up till now, and it was little things like this that let that happen.

"Professor Dumbledore, it's good to see you again."

It was Sakura who opened the door to the home for Dumbledore and he couldn't help but note the changes the young girl had gone through. While there were some physical changes of course that wasn't what he paid attention to. That honor went to Sakura's eyes and her aura. With the help of her mind healer gone was the permanent abyss within her eyes and in its place there now was light. There was still darkness in them, shadows that hinted at past horrors, but now that wasn't the only thing within them as actual happiness was now present within more often than not these days. The same went for her aura that now had hints of the happiness and childish innocence that should have been there all along rather than an overwhelming feeling of despair and self-loathing.

"Ah Sakura, lovely to see you looking well. Harry has been taking proper care of you I hope." Dumbledore asked with a bright twinkle in his eyes.

Sakura blushed slightly and looked away but Dumbledore could still see that she was smiling. "Yes. He took me to the park for a picnic earlier today."

"Good, it does wonders for one's health to go outside now and again. Now, would you mind if I came in? I need to talk with Harry and yourself about the upcoming term."

Sakura lost her shyness as she nodded at the old headmaster. "Of course, Harry is cooking supper right now so you are welcome to join us if you'd like and speak then."

Dumbledore stroked his beard as he considered the invitation. "I think I will accept your most gracious offer. Tell me, is Harry cooking another Japanese dish? I quite enjoyed it the last time he did so."

Sakura nodded her head as she led Dumbledore to the dining room. "Yes, he's making Ramen tonight. He apparently found a recipe for it that he really wanted to try on a food forum. He claims its actually healthy unlike it's more common counterpart."

"I look forward to trying it." Dumbledore remarked as he contemplated looking up some recipes on the internet as well to give to the House Elves. He still wasn't as comfortable with the modern invention as Harry but he had been motivated enough to be able to use it decently well over the last months. As much as he felt a bit guilty about his actions he had been unable to keep himself from looking into the information Harry had inadvertently showed him.

While learning that Sakura was apparently a fictional character had been a surprise it hadn't really bothered him. After all the fact that they traveled dimensions to get here was indisputable and it wasn't difficult to find out the existence of the alternate-reality theory on the internet. Sakura was every bit a person as himself, of that he had no doubt. Which was why reading about her past and what her future was supposed to have been had been truly heartbreaking.

He had never brought up the fact that he possessed that knowledge however. It wouldn't have been right and would have likely ruined a lot of the good will he had garnered to speak about it. Dumbledore didn't doubt Harry knew, or at least suspected, that he had looked into it but he was apparently didn't care so long as he kept it to himself. It had been a bit difficult at first considering he wanted to use what he had learned to help Sakura somehow but he realized that Harry and her mind healer were more than up to the task and it got easier, enough so that he was no longer tempted.

"Dumbledore, are you joining us for supper tonight?" Harry asked without even turning his head as he and Sakura entered the dining room (which was connected to the kitchen).

"If it's not too much trouble. Sakura has informed me that you are trying a new recipe and I am quite looking forward to the taste."

"It's fine. I had expected it anyways. I should be done in another ten minutes or so, feel free to make yourself comfortable." Harry replied absentmindedly, his focus entirely on the food he was creating.

"Thank you, Harry. I'm guessing you've been paying attention to the date then if you expected me?" Dumbledore stated more than asked.

"Yes. School starts tomorrow right? Or at least the orientation portion."

"Indeed. I was wondering if you had reached an answer on whether or not you wanted to ride on the Express like the others or just wait in the castle."

Harry took a few moments to reply as he focused on keeping his noodles from getting ruined. "I didn't see the point but Sakura hasn't been on a train before and wanted to experience it once. So, to answer your question, we'll go."

Dumbledore smiled happily at that as he turned to look at Sakura, who was currently setting the table. "Well I'm glad you decided to take part in the tradition. I will warn you that the train isn't the most exciting of things to ride. The Express is still controlled by the Ministry so there hasn't been any interesting changes made to it. I'm afraid it will simply be a normal steam train traveling on tracks, albeit powered by magic instead of coal."

Sakura finished putting down the dishes she had been holding before speaking. "I appreciate your honesty professor Dumbledore but I already figured it wouldn't be too exciting. I still want to experience it at least once though and maybe…"

Sakura trailed off, not willing to voice out her thoughts/hopes. Partly that was because she was naturally introverted but mostly it was because she didn't have good experiences with other people besides Harry, and Dumbledore to a lesser extent. So while she wanted to maybe make some friends she didn't think it would be possible at the same time. She was tainted after all.

Dumbledore could guess what Sakura was thinking however, though he didn't mention it knowing the topic to be quite the delicate one. "I see. Well if you find the trip is not to your liking you never have to take it again."

"We figured." Harry answered for the both of them. By this point the table was set and Harry was finished cooking so he quickly brought out everyone's food. Harry and Sakura took a moment to give the traditional Japanese thanks for the food while Dumbledore waited for them to finish out of respect. Once they were done however they all dug into their food, with Dumbledore doing so with much more gusto than the two children.

The meal was spent mostly in silence, with a small smattering of small talk here and there. It was only several minutes later, when they were all finished eating, that the conversation got serious once again.

"Harry. I'm sure you are prepared for tomorrow but I need to ask if you are comfortable with using your family name once more."

Harry grimaced slightly. "I still bothers me to be honest, but it's easier for Sakura so I'll deal with it.

Dumbledore sighed slightly. "And are you still sure you don't want to-"

Harry cut him off. "I'm sure. I realize logically that they can't be blamed for what happened to me but it's hard for me to get past years of anger. When…If I deal with my feelings then I'll visit them but now is just too soon."

Dumbledore wasn't happy with that, for both Harry and his parent's sake, but he also understood where he was coming from. "Very well, I won't bring it up again until you yourself bring it up."

Harry nodded his head. "Thank you."

Dumbledore waved his thanks off. "Nothing to thank me for Harry. I will respect the boundaries you put up just as everyone should. Now I think I shall be going. Remember to keep a firm hold of the portkey and try and rotate with it when you travel, it will keep you from falling."

With that bit of parting advice Dumbledore walked to the door, escorted by both Harry and Sakura in accord with common manners.

"Have a good night professor." Sakura said.

"And we'll see you tomorrow at the feast." Harry finished.

With a genial smile Dumbledore nodded before he walked out the door and back down the streets of Hogsmeade. He could just apparate back to Hogwarts but it was such a lovely night for a stroll. His paperwork could wait.

* * *

Harry rolled over in the bed as his internal alarm went off, snuggling into Sakura as he tried to ward off the fact that it was time to wake up. Sakura, for her part, just wiggled deeper into his arms unconsciously. He'd have to get up soon to make breakfast for both of them but for now he just wanted to lie in for a bit. It was rare for both Sakura and himself to get good sleep and as such he wanted to savor the lingering feeling for as long as possible. Unfortunately, he did have to get up eventually and, after making sure not to wake Sakura up, he put on some normal clothes and made his way to the kitchen.

They had already packed their stuff a couple nights prior so they had been able to sleep later then they usually would, which meant there was already quite a few people moving around outside. Harry knew most of them to be his neighbors, though he had never interacted with them, and made sure to watch them for any potential threats as they passed his house. None of them had shown any hostility, or even much curiosity, in regards to them or their house yet but it was better to be safe than sorry.

As he kept watch on the outside world Harry cooked up some pancakes and bacon for breakfast. While he, and Sakura, preferred the lighter Japanese style food most of the time pancakes were an exception, though they made sure not to indulge themselves too often. The food was made fairly quickly and, after pouring two glasses of orange juice, he made his way back to their shared bedroom to wake Sakura up.

"Sakura. Wake up, I made breakfast." Harry whispered gently as he slowly, and carefully, coaxed her out of her slumber. Even now, after time and therapy had helped dull the memories, Sakura freaked out if she was woken up suddenly, even by him. The thought brought a frown to his face and he quickly forced it away. He didn't want Sakura to wake up to anything other than a warm smile so long as he could help it, which he could.

"Mrmmrm." Sakura mumbled sleepily as her mind fought to stay asleep. It was a losing battle though and, not a minute later, she was rubbing her bleary eyes as she sat herself up.

"Mrnin Hry." She mumbled out tiredly causing him to chuckle slightly in amusement.

"You're so adorably cute when you're sleepy." Harry teased, though he meant what he said.

Sakura didn't blush or even react beyond getting fully out of bed. "fd?"

"Yes food is ready. I made us pancakes."

Sakura gave a happy little noise in the back of her throat as she tried to walk towards her food. Harry stopped her however and proceeded to help her into her everyday clothes before allowing her to lead the way to the dining room. Luckily she was surprisingly compliant whenever he did that instead of attempting to just continue walking by. He didn't think he could actually change her out pajamas if she fought against him.

Sakura only fully woke up about midway through eating breakfast and, like always, she blushed in embarrassment at how she had acted while still groggy. Also like always Harry teased her a bit for it before they settled into finishing their breakfast in silence. After that they washed their dishes, grabbed their trunks and grabbed hold of the small metal circle that was their port-key. Not one minute later they were off, spinning through a whirlwind of color as the magical teleportation took them to King's Cross station.

Due to heeding Dumbledore's advice they kept themselves from falling down, though they still felt nauseous from the experience. Harry made a mental note to look into a method of teleportation that didn't make him sick before he turned his attention towards their surroundings. Platform 9 ¾ (a designation that still confused him) would have looked just like a normal train station platform were it not for the people. Due to arriving relatively early the platform wasn't completely packed but there was still a large amount of people. People who all but screamed they were magical whether that be through their attire, pets or actually casting spells. Why there were no police or security officers present for crowd control Harry wasn't sure, though he chalked it up to the incompetence of the Ministry he had been told about so often.

"Come on Sakura, let's get on board before it gets worse." Harry said as he grasped her hand and lead them towards the train.

They got no more than passing glances as they weaved through the crowd as his identity still wasn't known to the general population. He knew Dumbledore had kept the information quite on his end though why the ministry did was a mystery, assuming they actually had found out of course. Not even Dumbledore knew if they had checked, or if the Unspeakables found out who he was. It was just too bad his anonymity would end once they got to Hogwarts but there wasn't anything to be done about that.

As the got aboard the bright red locomotive Harry continued to hold onto Sakura's hand as they walked down the hallway. They passed a large number of compartments but all of them had at least one occupant in them so they didn't use them. The train was enchanted to create enough compartments for all the students however so it didn't take too long to find an empty one for themselves. Once they were settled, and Harry had put their luggage overhead, they turned to look out of the window, though for different reasons.

Harry wanted to get a feel for the people they'd be going to school with while at the same time assessing them and their parents/escorts for threats. Sakura on the other hand was simply curious about the people they would be spending almost an entire year with on some level or another. There wasn't actually much different about the other kids/teenagers from those attending regular school from what they could tell. Sure they used magic and wore different clothes but the cliques they formed and the gossip/conversations they had were basically the same. There were a few kids who looked a bit snobbish but you could find those everywhere as well.

The real difference was actually in the adults. Beyond the same clear divide between traditional and progressive magicals, showcased by their clothes, there was a lot of underlying tension on the platform as well. Some families (from both sides) glared at each other with clear hatred, others looked like they were assessing the other parents like a predator would pray and some were even outright arguing with each other, their children usually getting in on it as well. If not for Dumbledore's explanations and the books Harry had read he might have been a bit confused by it all but he wasn't, instead he just felt resignation and annoyance at the thought that he was part of the same family politics as well. It was sort of ironic how similar wizards/wizards were to Magi in regards to their "nobility" and family feuds.

Despite all the tension and mass of bodies on the platform no actual conflict broke out however, which Harry was thankful for. He didn't particularly fancy potentially getting caught up on a chaotic magical battle, even if it would be less likely to affect the train. The crowd remained even as the departure time arrived and the last few families frantically rushed to board the train on time, making sure to give last goodbyes to the children they wouldn't see for several months. It was as the train was just beginning to pull out of the station that the two Magi's quiet compartment experienced change in the form of a knock on the door.

Looking through the small window in the middle of the door Harry could see a rather irritated looking teenage girl asking for permission to enter. Harry noted the girl's pink faux-hawk hair and black jeans + Jacket combo and instantly came to the conclusion she was a "punk". Looking briefly at Sakura, and noting that she was fine with seeing what the girl wanted, Harry got up and opened the door.

"Wotcher. Sorry for bugging ya but do you mind if I share your compartment?" The girl asked with a bit of embarrassment in her voice, though her face still looked ticked off.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Do you mind if I ask why before I give an answer?"

The girl huffed but reluctantly complied. "I just broke up with my boyfriend after an argument which my friends took his side on. Didn't want to sit with them anymore after that."

Harry could see she was telling the truth but that still didn't answer his question. "I meant more on the lines of why our compartment in particular but you have my sympathies."

The girl snorted as she waved him off. "Thanks for the gesture, but I don't need em. As for why your compartment, that's simply because it was the closest non-full compartment I found. Well that and because I like your hair, dig the purple."

Sakura smiled slightly at the complement and the girl's interesting attitude, which Harry interpreted to mean she was fine with letting the girl in.

"Alright, you got your luggage or you need help putting it up?"

The girl smirked. "Trying to flex your muscles in front of your girlfriend firstie?"

Harry raised an eyebrow while Sakura adopted a mild blush. "I don't need to; she knows what I look like without a shirt and I already put both our stuff up before you arrived."

That caught the girl by surprised. "Wow, not even a little embarrassment. I'm impressed firstie, names Tonks. Just Tonks."

While curious about her name, and why there was a dangerous edge to her voice when she repeated it, he let it fade as he gave introductions in return. "I'm Harry, this is Sakura."

As Tonks heard his name she flicked her eyes up to where his scar (which, while no longer looking fresh, still stood out rather prominently) was on his forehead. Other than that though she didn't have much of an overt or extreme reaction to his name.

"Huh. Honestly didn't think I'd see you going to Hogwarts. I actually thought you were dead till now to be honest."

"You're a rather blunt person aren't you?" Harry deadpanned.

Tonk shrugged. "I like to think I'm simply not afraid to speak my mind. After all I'm sure you realized I figured it out so there was no point skirting around the issue.

Harry could respect that at least. "I see."

"The eyes through me off for a bit though. Supposedly you're supposed to have glasses and two emerald eyes, at least according to all the stories they made about you. I dig them though, they're pretty cool. Did you get them done or are you a metamorphagus?"

Harry frowned at the mention of the books about his life, and even harder when Tonks mentioned his eyes. While he knew she hadn't done it intentionally (she couldn't have known after all) it was still an annoying reminder of his time at the Matous.

"What's a metamorphagus?" Harry asked, completely side stepping Tonk's question in the process.

In response Tonk's eyes change colors to match his own while her hair turned black and grew long and wavy. She also grew a couple of inches and her face shifted to look a bit softer and more round than before.

"A shapeshifter?" Harry asked with a lot of interest clear in his voice.

"Basically. It's extremely rare in our society, so much so that I'm the first one in two centuries, so I'm not surprised you didn't know." Tonks replied as she morphed her features back to what she had first appeared as.

"Do you mind talking about the topic? I'm quite curious."

Tonks shrugged with a half grimace on her face. "I guess, it's not my favorite thing to talk about but I'm willing to answer your questions so long as I can ask both of you my own. Hard to make friends when the conversation is one sided after all."

That took both Harry and Sakura aback somewhat.

"You…want to be friends?" Sakura timidly asked.

"Yup."

"Why?" Harry asked.

Tonks raised an eyebrow. "Why not? I'm a Hufflepuff, making friends is kind of what we are supposed to do. Besides you two seem like you'll be interesting to talk to."

"And you don't care that we're younger than you?"

"You act more mature than most of my former friends." Tonks said philosophically.

Harry noted that she just said former friends but didn't mention it. Maybe the fight she had, had was worse than he had assumed. Turning to look at Sakura the two Magi shared a silent conversation before coming to the decision that they'd actually try and become friends with Tonks.

"Alright. Friends it is…what do you want to know?" Harry asked.

Tonks hummed thoughtfully as her hair flashed through a multitude of colors, as if to highlight the fact that she was thinking deeply about what to ask. It was pretty funny and Sakura had to stifle a giggle at the sight of it. Judging by the amusement Harry saw in her eyes however Tonks still noticed.

"Alright, since you seem to be the shy type why don't we start with you. Let's go with something simple, what House do you want to be in?"

"…the one Harry gets into." Sakura mumbled out.

"Sounds like a Hufflepuff to me. What about you? Which house are you going to drag your girlfriend into?" Tonks teased.

"Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. I didn't particularly like what I learned about the other two houses." Harry replied succinctly.

"Then I'll make sure to keep a couple of seats open for you guys at the table." Tonks grinned. "Now, your turn. What do you want to know?"

"Is being a metamorphagus something you can only be born into or is it a skill that's possible to learn?"

"You have to be born one. It's possible to learn self-transfiguration to get similar results but it's not the same as being a metamorph. What subject are you two looking forward to learning about the most?"

Harry pondered the question, trying to figure out the subject he was most looking forward to. It was kind of difficult to answer if he was being honest. "I guess Potions and Runes, though they all seem pretty interesting."

Tonks hummed thoughtfully. "I was honestly expecting you to say Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Harry nodded his head. "I am interested in the class, especially since Dumbledore is teaching it, but the possibilities that Potions and Runes offer just wins out in the end."

"And what about you Sakura?" Tonks asked after a couple of seconds.

"Arithmancy."

Sakura's answer made Tonks blinked in surprise. "You…actually like math?"

Sakura blushed but didn't answer. It may have been because of her Origin/Element of Imaginary Numbers but she had found that she actually liked math, or anything else to do with numbers, in the months leading up till now. There was something she just found relaxing about getting lost in equations and calculations, a feeling that her healer had only helped cultivate in their time together.

"Well…ignoring the person who is obviously not a kid, for no kid likes math, it's your turn again."

Harry rolled his eyes at her comment while Sakura turned away in embarrassment.

"How does it work? Do you convert materials from your body to make your changes, are the changes made purely out of magic, or something else?"

Tonk raised her hand in a so-so gesture. "A bit of both. I use some of my body mass, usually fat, to make the changes but my magic can sort of multiply it so I can actually end up weighing more depending on the changes I make."

And yet more proof that the magic of his birth world was different from Magecraft. It made him wish Sakura was capable of the subjects that required a wand and Core, though at least she was still able to use some of the subjects just as well as he could, he was afraid she'd get bored at Hogwarts if she couldn't.

The three youths continued their conversation for a few hours, alternating who asked the questions each time. At some point the questions for Tonks became less trying to figure out her abilities and more trying to learn about her as a person. They actually started building up a rapport, and the basic frameworks of a friendship, as time went on until the questions stopped and the simply started having a normal conversation instead. Amusingly it was about music, and the fact that neither he nor Sakura had ever heard the Weird Sisters, Metallica or Led Zeppelin. It was almost like the admission that they didn't listen to any music at all, and had never actually heard of those bands, shot actual arrows into her heart for how dramatically she reacted at the revelation.

After that she pulled out a crystal disk for what she called "emergency treatment", which basically just meant having them listen to her music. The disk was another product Harry had seen sold in Hogsmeade alongside the enchanted laptops and crystal TVs, and it basically functioned as a mundane MP3 player. Harry did have to admit that he liked her music though. He didn't see what was so amazing about the bands she had previously named however, they were good sure but not that good. He though that Rise Against was the best band she had him listen to. Sakura however wasn't much of a fan so the music session only lasted for about forty minutes or so, just enough to give them a taste of quality entertainment in Tonks' words.

It wasn't long after the music session that their lively conversations came to an end however. Not because of any of them but instead it was the fault of the male teenager that had just rudely thrown the door to their compartment open.

"Want do you want Steve?" Tonks asked icily, her eyes and hair turning red as a physical expression of her anger even though her face remained blank.

"I'm here to take you back. You've had enough time to get over yourself by now." The boy, that Harry was now fairly certain was Tonks' (ex)boyfriend, stated presumptuously. Harry didn't like him, he reminded him of Shinji…and now he was pissed off too, great.

"What part of we're through and you're a disgusting, childish, over-compensating pig did you not understand? You can piss of Steve, don't bother me again." Tonks spat out scathingly.

Her words did not sit right by Steve if the angry flush on his face was any indication. Rather than let him respond to Tonk's words, and likely start a loud and annoying argument, Harry decided to step in. He didn't force him out physically or talk him down though, instead he made the smart decision and used Hypnosis.

"Apologize to Tonks, leave the compartment and go stick your head in the toilet." Harry commanded.

"I apologize Tonks." Steve replied in a daze, his eyes clouded over as his consciousness was immediately put under Harry's sway. After his apology the boy promptly left and Harry couldn't help but note how ridiculously easy that was. It was like he had no magic resistance or training to resists mental manipulation at all.

Tonks' eyebrows shot up in surprise at Steve's uncharacteristic actions before turning to look at Harry in confusion. "Did you just mind control my ex into sticking his head into a toilet?"

Harry snorted as she hung up on that bit instead of the apology or the fact he just used hypnosis on someone. "It was merely a suggestion laced with magic and light hypnotism. I honestly didn't think he would be weak enough to fall so completely under my control."

Now it was Tonks' turn to snort. "Trust me, it's not that surprising. Steve is not the fastest broom in the shed. Makes me wonder how he's passed his OWLs well enough for higher level classes actually."

Harry had to repress a sigh. He honestly found it quite tedious how magicals here named things.

"How did you do that by the way? I didn't see you use your wand."

Harry absentmindedly fingered the wand he kept strapped to his forearm, underneath his black long-sleeve shirt, at the mention of it Getting his wand had been an…interesting experience. The feeling of resonance between it and his core, the way his circuits writhed in pleasure/pain and the way he had unconsciously changed his surroundings into a cacophony of shapes, colors and material. All of it had been strange to experience, and had left him more than a little wary of using his wand at all despite having it for a couple of months now.

"A wand isn't the only way to use magic." Was Harry's reply after a few seconds of silence.

Tonks' apparently was capable of reading the mood and didn't press him to expand upon his answer at all, despite her clear surprise at him being able to perform "wandless" magic.

The compartment fell into silence after that point for several minutes before Sakura managed to restart their conversation from earlier. It took a bit to get back into the same rhythm and atmosphere as before but they eventually managed it and the trio conversed for the remaining two hours it took to get to Hogwarts. There were no further interruptions (besides the Trolley Lady) thankfully, Steve apparently either taking the hint that he wasn't welcome or he was simply too embarrassed to show his face again after being made to stick his head in a toilet. He also wasn't spoken about again either, the topic being a sore one for the metamorph.

It was dark out when the train pulled into the station at Hogsmeade, the sky overcast enough to block out most of the stars though the moon still poked its head out. It was also at the station that Tonks finally parted ways with them.

"I'll see you two at the feast. First years go with Hagrid, the big guy over there, on the scenic route. Us older years get to take the horseless carriages." Tonks stated, drawing Harry's attention to the carriages that were definitely not horseless.

"Tonks…are you sure the carriages aren't pulled by something?"

Tonks looked at him in confusion. "Yeahh…why?"

"Because there are what look like undead horses with bat wings in the harnesses." Harry stated neutrally.

Tonks paused at that, turning her head to look back at the carriages again before turning her attention back to Harry. "Are you having me on?"

"I can see them too." Sakura said in response, her voice muted as she retreated into herself slightly due to the crowd and noise around them.

"Well…I don't see them. I guess that means I'll have to ask Professor Kettleburn about them during class." Tonks said as her eyes once again ran over the carriages in an attempt to spot the creatures her two young friends claimed were there.

Harry just shrugged. "If you find out let us know but I think our guide is leaving and I'd rather not get left behind."

"Right. See ya Harry, Sakura."

With that Tonks left them, quickly boarding a random carriage that wasn't full in order to take her to Hogwarts. For their part Harry and Sakura made their way to the back of the mob of first years following Hagrid down to a boat shack. Once there they were instructed to get aboard one of the wooden row boats before they, after Hagrid gave a signal, started gliding through the unnaturally still waters of the Black Lake. Luckily they had a boat to themselves, the number of first years not quiete evenly divided by four like Hagrid had instructed be in each boat, which meant they weren't as cramped as everyone else. A good thing too as in one boat a slightly pudgy child ended up falling out of his boat when he tried to make himself a bit more comfortable they were so cramped.

Despite his panicking, and apparent inability to swim, he was in no danger as the boat he had fallen out of grew a wooden tendril that wrapped itself around his waist and pulled him back aboard. Didn't stop him from being cold though, nor did it prevent the mocking laughter from several of the nearby boats but at least he didn't drown. After that incident the only other thing of note was the appearance of a giant squid tentacle, that was surprisingly friendly and seemed to sort of wave at them as they passed by. Weird but not the strangest thing he had even seen.

Then they all caught sight of Hogwarts, framed by the pale moonlight and lit up by a multitude of floating orbs of light and flames of varying colors. As if to punctuate just how magical the sight of the old castle was a flock of pegasi chose that moment to pass between Hogwarts and the moon. Even for Harry and Sakura the sight took their breath away. He could see why Tonks had called it the scenic route. It was a very effective method of showcasing that, yes, magic **was** taught here and it was amazing. He actually heard a few of the, presumably mundane-born judging by their clothes, students squeeing at the sight.

The sight didn't last long however as it eventually the castle got obscured by the cliff it was built atop of when the boats made their landing. The ground they stood upon after getting out of the boat was wet and slippery while the lightening was almost non-existent, Hagrid's lone lantern doing little to light the way. Hearing the sound of a few of the other students slipping, some even impacting the ground with a muted thump, Harry decided he didn't want to risk Sakura's safety like that. Good thing he had an easy solution in the form of an odd dozen floating fireballs spaced out in a wide circle over his head. The fact that they helped warm those nearby up, and dry off the kid that had fallen into the lake, was just an unintended side benefit.

He could have done without all the staring though. Also the not so quiet whispering/gossiping about him and the magic he had just displayed. All the attention made him uncomfortable, though it was even worse for Sakura as she ended up hiding herself behind his back due to the number of eyes on them. Thankfully Hagrid, despite also being surprised at the magic use, managed to get everyone's attention long enough to start them walking up the path towards the castle. It didn't stop the whispering but it stopped the constant staring and, since they were in the back, prevented anyone from coming up and questioning them. Well, they could have still done that if they simply slowed their pace enough to fall in line with them, but his annoyed glare, and the increase in size his fireballs had in resposne to the first one who tried deterred them from that course of action.

The remaining walk to the castle was as long as it was treacherous despite his added light, at least in appearance. Harry was fairly certain that, like with the boats, should anyone actually fall or were in danger of falling, that counter measures would activate. Dumbledore was a man who cared for his charges and did not take chances with their safety if he could help it (himself not included).

"Tha firs'-years professor McGonagall." Hagrid said to the stern looking witch who opened the door following his pounding on it. Harry recognized her easily, the woman having been one of the few people Dumbledore had actually introduced him to and informed of his existence. She was a stern woman but a good one as well, though the gimlet eye she gave the assembled first years did nothing to showcase that fact to them.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She replied, her voice as stern as her appearance. With a gesture that commanded, not requested, they follow her McGonagall led them into Hogwarts proper. As they traversed the hallways of the magical castle most of the first years couldn't help but ooh and aww over the many sentient paintings, floating lights and moving suits of armor. Harry only paid enough attention to make sure neither he nor Sakura bumped into any of it.

Upon arriving outside the door into the Feat hall McGonagall turned to face the crowd of first years, finally addressing verbally them for the first time.

"Welcome to Hogwarts." She said. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

The four houses, for those that didn't read the guide, are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose them. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor that also gives the right to have a party or event sponsored by Hogwarts to celebrate the victory. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on the pudgy kid who was still fairly damp despite Harry's fireballs drying him slightly, another boy, this one red-headed, who had food smudges on his face and a brunette girl who had somehow spilt ink on her clothes.

"I will return when we are ready for you, please wait quietly until then." McGonagall finished before she turned around and entered the feast hall, somehow preventing anyone from catching a glimpse inside in the process despite their many attempts.

Of course kids being kids they did not follow the professors last instructions as they instantly started gossiping amongst themselves. Most of it was about the sorting, and what it actually was, while a smaller portion was about the houses or his earlier display of magic. There were only a few exceptions to this (not including the two Magi) as the kids were either being too shy, in the case of the wet boy, or naturally reserved in the case of a blank faced blonde girl. Thankfully gossiping was all they did, besides a bit of arguing between food smudge and another blonde hair student about which house was better. He would have been annoyed if they had crowded him for answers but he had expected it. Apparently they still possessed common sense/manners and he could only wonder how long that would last. He dreaded what was going to happen when his name was called for the Sorting.

Thankfully the ghosts chose this time to distract him from those thoughts. It was rather amusing watching the other kids' reactions, most of them being screaming in terror or yelping in fright. To be fair when one of the ghosts had a head that was dangling by only the thinnest of scraps of flesh and another looked like a serial killer (complete with blood stains and meat hooks) he couldn't really blame them. Harry still found it odd that spirits were allowed to simply "live" in the castle and not get exorcised or banished. Then again the ghosts were no-where near as malevolent as those in Sakura's world. Even their "poltergeist" was nothing more than an irritant rather than an actual threat. He should know, he had run into it enough times during his visits to get a solid feel for its "personality".

At least Pavlov worked on the dead just as well as it did for dogs seeing as how the minute Peeves entered the hallway, equipped with water balloons, and caught sight of him he fled in terror... Maybe that wasn't Pavlov come to think of it. It seemed a bit more likely that it was simply survival instincts, as ironic as that was for a ghost to possess, than a learned behavior.

After the ghosts were gone and the first years had mostly calmed themselves down McGonagall returned and ushered them into the feast hall. The first thing Harry noted upon entering was that Dumbledore really liked to show he was in charge if the throne "Chair" he was sitting in was anything to go by. The next was how gaudy the hall was decked out in all the house colors like it was. They did not blend together well and the massive tapestries with their crests didn't help matters either in that regard.

Following that observant came the people, and how they were all staring at them. Sakura shirked in on herself even further at that point, which was saying something considering she hadn't said anything or moved from behind his back since they got off the train. Luckily they weren't paying attention to her, or himself, specifically…yet.

The last thing he noticed was the ratty looking hat that was placed on a stool in the middle of the hall. A ratty looking hat that was currently singing…badly. Why the founders had decided to create a sentient hat with a sense of "humor" in order to sort students Harry would never know, and would forever by baffled by. At least the message it was trying to convey was better than his singing as it gave a summary of the houses and how they shouldn't let them define them. Something which Harry agreed with. Letting a single personality trait determine who you were, or who you socialized with, was dumb to say the least.

After the singing came the official sorting ceremony, done in alphabetical order. As the number of first years dwindled and the letter getting further down Harry got increasingly anxious, though he didn't outwardly show it. His being nervous would make Sakura even more nervous than she was, which he didn't want.

"Potter, Harry." McGonagall's voice rang out, instantly silencing the entire hall as every single pair of eyes turned to look in his direction when he stepped forward. All of them looked stunned at his presence here, surprised at his appearance and curious about where he had been and what had happened to him. The wild theories and gossip that created an almost deafening level of noise despite being made up entirely of whispers were as amusing as they were annoying. There were only five people in the hall that did not show surprise or descend into gossiping, besides Sakura. Those being Dumbledore, McGonagall, Madame Pomfrey, Snape and Tonks. Though the latter two still stared at him in anticipation, wondering which house he'd join.

" _Ah. I was so looking forward to meeting you Mr. Potter. You have such an… 'interesting mind, and such a tragic past."_

Harry winced slightly at the intrusion into his mind but he had expected it since Dumbledore had warned him of what would happen in advance. The headmaster had known better than to hold back something that important from him.

" _Hello Godfrey. Please don't call me by my last name."_

Harry felt the hat hum at that, an odd sensation considering his head was inside of it and thus was getting vibrated from all directions.

" _Yes, you're still not comfortable with your family are you? No matter, I'm not here to pry into personal issues I'm here to sort you. But where though? Difficult. So very difficult."_

" _If it helps any I don't want to be in Gryffindor or Slytherin."_ Harry thought to the hat.

" _But you would fit in well with either house. Slytherin especially would see you to greatness. But I can tell you are firm in your decision. Hmm. Intelligent enough for Ravenclaw certainly but I'm afraid their incessant curiosity about you and your abilities would try your patience too much. Which just leaves one house. Good thing you strongly display its traits, even if it's only in regards to one person at the moment."_

"Hufflepuff!"

The Hat's declaration stunned the entire hall leaving many, especially those in Gryffindor, speechless. None of them had expected him to come to Hogwarts but when they had seen him in anyways they had believed that, despite his changes, he'd go to the same house as his parents. As such some of them were just a little bit upset, though a pair of red-headed twins managed to make most of it non-hostile due to their overly dramatic reaction to his sorting easing the tension. Those in Hufflepuff however burst into uproarious applause and wild cheering once they got past the shock.

Despite the changes Hogwarts and the house system had gone through over the past couple of decades there was still a lingering stigmata of their house being the left overs and duffers of the school. A stigma that was basically assured to be wiped out forever now that **The** Harry Potter was in Hufflepuff. So who can blame them if there were a bit excited by the news.

Harry, for his part, was both uncomfortable and annoyed at the reactions his sorting garnered. Which was why he ignored them as he quietly took his place in one of the spots Tonks had left open for him at the end of the Hufflepuff table. He made sure to leave the spot at the very end, the one with no one but him adjacent to it, for Sakura though knowing it'd make her a bit more comfortable.

Speaking of it was now her turn to be sorted, once McGonagall quieted the raucous students down. An effort that took even her a couple of minutes to accomplish.

"Potter, Sakura."

And just like that McGonagall's hard fought silence was broken once more, this time devolving into an even louder level than before. Who could blame them? There was another Potter at Hogwarts, which meant either Harry had a secret twin sister (in which case the drama and speculation about her existence delved into the most extreme of conspiracy theories) or he was somehow already married or engaged to someone. Both were quite juicy but it was actually the latter that was true, a necessary set up to allow Sakura legal protection from the Ministry and its citizens. She was technically a non-magical in their eyes, or a squib at best (which was arguably worse), after all and the Ministry had less protection for people of that designations than mundanes had for animals.

Harry could almost feel holes burning themselves into his body as every student stared at him intensely, only taking their eyes off him occasionally to do the same to Sakura. Even Tonks was no different, though she had the courtesy to rein herself in fairly quickly, an action that got his appreciation and an answer in the form of a gesture to his ring figure. The widening of her eyes told him she understood, the teasing smile she had on the other hand told him she was going to try and tease him mercilessly with the knowledge. Too bad he wasn't, couldn't, be embarrassed by the topic. It would be funny watching her try though.

"Hufflepuff!" The hat cried out, once again momentarily silencing the mass of students in its volume, as well as for the implication it had. Both Potters were in Hufflepuff. The school's most famous siblings and or couple in history was in the house of the "losers". Harry noted that the same twins he had noticed before mimed having heart attacks in response though the effect it had was much lesser than before.

Again McGonagall needed several minutes to fight for order and quiet to return to the hall. Thankfully her restarting the sorting took most of the attention of them as Sakura had almost curled herself into a ball trying to get away from all the looks. At least he, and to a lesser extent Tonks, was there to provide comfort and warn off any of their tablemates from trying to question them.

Once the last student, one Blaze Zabini, was sorted into Slytherin Dumbledore rose from his ornate chair and moved to a podium that stood in front of the teacher's table. Raising his hands into the air to gesture for silence from the few students still talking, he cleared his throat as he addressed the student body.

"Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Harry couldn't help it. He **stared** at Dumbledore as he retreated back to his seat, his eyes dull and his expression all but screaming the question "Really?". At least the headmaster's eccentricities served the purpose of distracting Sakura from her nervousness due to its randomness.

"He does that every year. Always something completely random and nonsensical. Almost enough for me to think he was mad if not for experiencing how he acts as a professor first hand." Tonks couldn't help but remark wryly.

"So this is a common theme then…does he do the same thing at the end of the year feast as well?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

"Yup. Though he also says a bit more, mostly to name and congratulate the winning house."

Harry sighed before turning his attention towards the food that had appeared on the table in front of him. Apparently the House Elves were watching them again as in front of both Sakura and himself was Japanese food rather than the English food everyone else got. Tonks noticed the difference but, beyond a raised eyebrow, her only reaction was to snag some of the sushi and tempura before turning her attention back to her own food. Harry doubted that there were many people in the castle who were both willing and able to be as tactful as she continued being. It made him feel like they had lucked out in having her become their first (and potentially only) friend at Hogwarts.

The rest of their meal went uninterrupted, for which all three of them were thankful. Though Tonks was more concerned about her ex or her former friends making their way to her table rather than having to having to face an endless barrage of questioning. After the meal the entirety of the Hufflepuff table got up and made their way to their common room, making sure to guide the first years and give them helpful advice on moving through the castle along the way. Amusingly a commonly repeated bit of information was that the kitchen was near their common room and that the method of opening it was tickling the pear. At least they didn't have to tickle a pickle instead.

When they arrived at the entrance to the common room Harry noted that it was seemingly buttressed by a large number of old school water/wine barrels. An interesting, if confusing, sight. Apparently the only way to get into the common room was to tap on the barrels in a certain pattern, a pattern which changed every week in terms of both length and order of the combination. Again the Hufflepuffs moved as one as they entered the common room, though the older years moved to the sides in order to allow the first years' room in the center of the very large, and very cozy looking, common room. The reason for that move became apparent when Professor Sprout walked in the room.

"Welcome to Hufflepuff. I am your head of house Pomona Sprout. While within these rooms you can call me by either my first or last name but I expect to be called professor while teaching ok?" The matronly woman asked with a smile that clearly displayed her dimples.

Of course no one had a problem with that and their nods of agreement caused Sprout's smile to widen just a little bit more.

"Now. For the first two weeks of classes you will be guided to your classrooms by one or more of the prefects. The castle is prone to changing its layout and it takes a while to get used to it enough to find the classrooms by yourselves. There are also maps available but they are best used as a quick reference rather than your sole guide."

Following her words a few of the upper years, presumably the prefects, stepped forward and started passing out the maps, along with a little guide pamphlet regarding living in the school.

"These are your prefects for the year and they'll introduce themselves to you after I'm finished. They are always available if you need help in any form, whether that be studying or in regards to conflict with other students. The other houses also have prefects which you can go to for aid but they are likely to not help you in regards to anything but an emergency or an altercation with another student.

Your class schedules will be passed out tomorrow morning by the prefects so make sure you grab one before leaving for breakfast. On that note while you are free to go to the kitchen for food if you desire there is a curfew in effect at all times. As such you are not allowed to leave the common room after nine pm and before six am, unless it is an emergency, you have a class, or are meeting with a professor.

Finally, the dorms for Hufflepuff are in the form of suites. You are free to live with whoever and with as many people as you wish but each group needs either a prefect or an older student fifth year and above living with you. While I am sure you can all take care of yourselves this measure is necessary to ensure your safety as well as to prevent any misconduct from occurring while living here. Each suite is expanded by magic and the rooms will automatically generate for as many people chose to live there so don't be afraid of not having enough space. The rooms will also be connected to a communal common area and will have their own bathrooms inside so you don't need to share the ones attached to this common room with everyone else. I do encourage you to do your studying or simply hang out in the main common room however instead of holing yourself up in your own. While it isn't a stated facet of our House, friendship and helping one another is a core tenet of Hufflepuff.

Now, that's all I have to say to you for now and I wish you all a good night."

Professor Sprout finished as she gestured for the prefects to take over from there, allowing her to leave the common room and head back to her private quarters for the night. Harry stopped paying attention at that point, not particularly caring about the prefects or what they were saying. He had their faces memorized if he ever wanted help but he preferred to deal with his own problems.

His focusing on the prefects did have a benefit in that it allowed him to notice all the contemplative, and hopeful, looks the various members of his new house were giving him. Sakura was getting them as well and he quickly figured out that they desired to share a quite with them, or at the very least wanted to become their friend. Harry honestly didn't know how to feel about that. He didn't really want or need friends beyond Sakura, though he liked Tonks well enough. He just didn't think he'd fit in well with any of them.

His fellow first years would be too immature while the older years too condescending about his age or too full of teenage angst. It didn't help that he likely had different interests than the majority of them. Nor did his fame help either as it was more likely that they'd want to be friends with the famous (or infamous) Harry Potter not him. Then there was the fact that his...history with the Dursleys was well known to the general public. Honestly, besides Tonks he was doubtful he'd make another friend in his house, and maybe even all of Hogwarts as well. Hopefully she was willing to be their suite supervisor.

"Yeah I'll room with you guys." Tonks said as if reading his mind. Noticing the look he gave her, Tonks smirked. "You're a bit easy to read Harry."

He knew that wasn't true, or not completely true at laest. He wouldn't have survived Zouken if he was easily read after all.

"Thank you, though I am curious."

Tonks got what he was implying. "Why I'm not rooming with someone else?" Harry nodded his head. "Well my friends are my ex-friends at the moment and while I am friendly enough with the rest of the house I'm not friends with them and don't want to room with them as a result. I'm a bit of an outlier in regards to not being part of the whole 'everyone is your friend and family' shtick most puffs adhere to."

Harry nodded, he understood that. "I'm not either, though I have a feeling they're going to try and make me become one."

Tonks smiled in sympathy. "Sorry bout that but…"

Harry waved her off, knowing her apology was largely pointless (she had no control over the others after all) as he turned to look at Sakura, who was still being extremely quiet and trying to avoid the attention of their peers.

"Are you ok with just us being in a suite along with Tonks? I know you wanted to make friends so if you want we can have more join us if you want to reach out to some of the others."

Sakura shook her head, inwardly happy at him asking her that question. While she was used to Harry always being considerate and looking out for her she couldn't help but be touched by it every time. Especially in the current since she knew how little he liked other people or how much he disliked being reminded of his past on this world, something that the other students would likely bring up at some point, multiple times.

"It's fine…Just us, like always."

Harry grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly while Tonks looked away tactfully. She could easily tell how much of an emotional scar Sakura's words were hinting at, and she had no interest whatsoever in making her, or Harry, relieve whatever caused it. Thankfully despite her words and the painful memories they reminded her of Sakura didn't sink into a depressed funk because of it, the therapy she had gone through doing its job well in that regard.

The prefects stopped talking a few minutes later and the trio of young magicals quietly faded away from the crowd, cleanly avoiding the attention and endless parade of people just dying to talk with Harry that they were sure was about to descend upon them. They chose the closest room they could and entered it as soon as it was ready just to make sure no one could sneak their way in.

Silently all three of them heaved a sigh of relief before they took in the sight of their living space. The suite itself was rather reminiscent or a good quality apartment with the way it was set up. In addition to a dining/living room combo, complete with couches, armchairs and a fireplace, there was also an attached kitchen. Maybe that was why they needed an older supervisor? So they didn't actually start a fire or something.

Besides the rather large shared space there were only four doors that designated extra space. All of them were closed but it was clear that three of them were bedrooms while the door in the middle was the bathroom.

They chose their rooms at random and, thanks to the House Elves, all their belongs were already waiting for them inside. None of them wasted any time in getting changed into pajamas and brushing their teeth. The feast had ended late and they were all fairly tired so, after saying their goodnights, they went to bed. Sakura didn't enter her own room like Tonks however and instead went with Harry into his as per usual, something which Tonks noted but didn't comment on.

"Goodnight Sakura." Harry whispered as they snuggled into each other for warmth in the bed.

"Goodnight Harry."

 **AN: The idea of Hufflepuff using barrels for their password and living in communal suites came from other fics though I forget the name of them.**

 **Don't expect classes to be the same, or for the events of the first book to happen. There will still be excitement however and not just slice of life stuff.**


End file.
